Broken pipes keep fire district busy

Some unlucky South Enders are dealing with burst water pipes this past week as the early December cold snap continues, fire officials said.

Some unlucky South Enders are dealing with burst water pipes this past week as the early December cold snap continues, fire officials said.

“There’ll probably be more as the community thaws out,” Deputy Chief Mike Cotton of Island County Fire District 3 predicted Thursday.

Cotton said firefighters responded to four calls about broken pipes on Tuesday, and two more on Thursday.

Two of the Tuesday calls and one Thursday were at Ken’s Korner Shopping Center, where a section of the sprinkler system in the ceiling of an unoccupied business space and in the mall office cracked, sending water streaming down.

A section of wall also was bulging from leaking water building up behind it, Cotton said.

“It affected the whole mall, because they had to shut off the water,” he said. “They’re working the problem.”

Also Tuesday, a short length of uninsulated pipe burst in the ceiling of an attached garage of a house in Clinton, damaging sheetrock and some holiday items stored there, Cotton said.

And the same day in Langley, a burst pipe was reported by the resident of a house on Park Avenue.

“The Langley Police Department took care of that one for us,” Cotton said.

Thursday afternoon, firefighters responded to another Langley call, this time to a house on Edgecliff Drive, where a resident reported water from a broke pipe was leaking from the ceiling.