It’s unclear when residents living on the top five floors of King Street’s Renaissance building in London, Ont., will be allowed back into their apartments after a burst water pipe caused significant damage Wednesday.
Fire crews were called to the 28-storey highrise around 10:45 a.m.
“People calling 911 said they were trapped in their apartments because the water was so deep in the hallway,” said assistant deputy fire chief Sean Fitzgerald, who added that the problem originated on the top floor.
“The weight of the water and the saturation has caused the ceilings to collapse in,” Fitzgerald said.
The assistant deputy fire chief told 980 CFPL the damage was mostly concentrated to the top two floors.
“The water is shut off now, it’s not continuing to flood, but it’s just running down through the building, causing problems.”
People living on floors 24 through 28 won’t be allowed back into their homes until hydro service has been turned back on, Fitzgerald added.
“There are some mobility issues right now with the elevators being shut down. We’re going to have to evacuate some people from the upper floors.”
Fitzgerald said the building’s owner was working to find accommodations for some residents who, once evacuated, won’t be able to return due to mobility issues.
While there isn’t an official damage estimate yet, he expects the clean up will be costly.
“It’s going to be a lot of money to restore because water goes everywhere … I imagine hundreds of thousands of dollars, probably.”