Manitoba Children’s Museum closed after sprinkler system malfunctions

Water pouring from a sprinkler system inside the Manitoba Children’s Museum forced the building to shut down Friday.

The museum said it happened inside the Lasagna Lookout play structure area in the building at The Forks.

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The museum said it happened inside the Lasagna Lookout play structure area in the building at The Forks.

At this point a cause of the sprinkler system malfunction isn’t known but staff do not believe it was weather related.

“There are areas where it is a few inches thick,” Erin McIntyre, with the Manitoba Children’s Museum, said. “It is akin to a water main break. We did turn off the water very quickly.”

The museum had tweeted initially it was a water main break.

McIntyre said Friday is a busy day for the museum with several school groups inside at the time the water poured from the sprinklers.

“Our staff moved very quickly to respond. We will do our very best to make it right to them (the students) very soon,” she said.

Staff expect the clean up to last through Saturday. The museum hopes to be reopen by Sunday but advises to call first to make sure it is open.

” If the museum is not safe to be opened we will not be open,” she said.

The museum expects the play structure area to stay closed for some time.

“The Lasagna Lookout play structure to be closed for an extended period time,” McIntyre said. “Until I get other contractors in to tell me their timelines so unfortunately I don’t have a more specific number for that.”