Cold weather causes sprinkler leak in public safety building

The evening of Saturday, Jan. 18, a pipe in the Public Safety Building's sprinkler system broke and caused some flooding.

Amber Al-Haddad, capital facilities director, explained that the building, which houses Wrangell's court, police department, fire department, and other entities, has two sprinkler systems: A wet system and a dry system. Somehow, she said that water got into the dry sprinkler system and froze during the cold weather Wrangell experienced this past month. This broke one of the pipes and caused water to pour out. A relatively small area on the second floor of the building was affected, Al-Haddad said. Water got into a janitor's closet, an archive room, and partially into the customs/border patrol office.

Fortunately, she said that no equipment, archives, or personal property were damaged. The leak was stopped and the dampened walls and ceiling tiles were removed and dried out. Al-Haddad said that there was some concern about there being mold or other microbes in the air because of the walls and ceiling tiles being moved, but they have brought in an air monitoring company to make sure everything is ok. Once that is confirmed, and some replacement parts come into town, she said they will get right to repairs.

The leak was brought up in the borough assembly meeting last Tuesday. Mayor Steve Prysunka commended several firefighters for voluntarily coming to the Public Safety Building to help with the cleanup after the discharge was stopped.

"I want to thank them for being there when this community needs them," he said. "This is all voluntary. Nobody's paid to do this, and I just really appreciate the effort."