A frozen sprinkler in downtown Tacoma’s Old City Hall thawed and broke today, dumping about 30,000 gallons of water throughout the historic building’s six floors.
Trina Jones, one of the four tenants, had stopped by her photography studio to grab extra chairs for her Thanksgiving celebration when she heard an alarm go off.
Within minutes, water began gushing through light fixture holes and cracks in the walls and ceilings.
“It was like an action movie with me running from a wall of water,” she said. “It was just pouring down like a rain shower in here.”
A 2-inch sprinkler line likely froze and broke after temperatures slightly increased, Tacoma firefighters said.
They were called to the building at Pacific Avenue and Seventh Street shortly after 1 p.m. and found water flooding all floors. Saturated carpet in the upper floors squished beneath people’s footsteps. Rivulets of water dripped down the staircases. Several inches of water created puddles on the concrete and wooden floors.
George Webb, managing partner of Old City Hall LLC, could not be reached for comment today.
Tacoma Fire Lt. Mark Stevens said he was unsure what safety risks the tenants faced but an electrical engineer had been called to determine whether the power needed to be shut off.
Another potential problem is mold.
Tenants were scrambling to salvage their items and hire companies to help pack up equipment necessary for their business. Robert Moore, who works at Halo Construction, said the flooding was unexpected even though they have been busy repairing broken pipes for customers.
“We were anticipating this pipe freezing coming, but not in our own building,” he said.
Because the fire sprinklers and suppression system is not working, firefighters said the building must be on fire watch. That means someone must check on Old City Hall every half hour to ensure there is no threat of a blaze breaking out.
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