Ceiling collapse at Leduc apartment complex causes damage, prompts evacuations

Tenants from about a dozen units are out of their homes and assessing the damage after a Leduc apartment complex sustained significant water damage.

A pipe burst in the ceiling of West Haven Terrace this week, causing water to flood the building.

“It was pouring,” Lilian Ralph, one of the building’s tenants, told Global News on Friday.

“There was so much water. I’ve never seen that much in my life.”

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Ralph was living in a fourth-floor unit with her 18-year-old son. She was visiting a friend in another unit when her unit flooded on Monday evening. Her two cats were home.

READ MORE: Calgary condo complex evacuated after pipe bursts on top floor

“They were so scared. They were just hiding underneath the couch. He was so soaking wet, like not a little bit wet, but soaked,” Ralph said.

Tenants told Global News that a pipe burst on Monday evening and then again on Tuesday.

“They said a pipe burst in the ceiling on Monday from the sprinkler and on Tuesday another pipe burst and caused a similar amount of flooding. I mean a large amount. We had seven fire trucks outside dealing with it.”

View photos of the damage in the gallery below:

READ MORE: Edmonton pipes burst overnight as temperature rises

Broadstreet Properties has been paying for evacuated tenants to spend time in a hotel and is working to find new apartments.

Ralph said she lost her furniture, clothes and food. She said she regrets not buying tenant insurance, but that she couldn’t afford it.

“As you can see, everything they’ve been gutting out. This was my bedroom,” she said. “Next door is my son’s room. And everything in his room is ruined. He has absolutely no clothes.”

Another neighbour, Sebastian Kinney, said none of his belongings were damaged but he’s being forced to move out.

“We were put in a hotel on Tuesday and I got a call at about noon on Wednesday that I had 48 hours to pack my belongings and vacate the premises,” Kinney said. “We’re like, ‘Why? How can this happen? How did this happen?'”

Kinney also didn’t have tenants’ insurance and is being forced to pay for his own moving costs.

“It’s an eye-opener,” he said. “Tenants’ insurance would have saved me.”