Pipe Burst Heavily Damages Apartment - Valley News Live - KVLY/KXJB - Fargo/Grand Forks

 Updated 9:00 PM

A group of college students are forced to stay with friends tonight after three inches of water filled their apartment building. The Fargo Fire Department was called to an apartment on the city's north side Tuesday afternoon for a "water flow alarm" from the building's sprinkler system. Assistant Fire Chief Gary Lorenz says when crews arrived, water was running out of the patio doors of a unit on the third floor.

     When they got to the apartment, they figured out a pipe in the wall froze and had burst. The pipe was part of the sprinkler system, so they shut that off and opened the drains.

Lorenz says his crew laid down tarps in an attempt to catch the water still coming down and ended up sweeping out about 3 inches of water from the original apartment.

The apartment where the break happened has significant water damage, and the unit directly below on the second floor also has moderate water damage. Water also got in the walls and basement. Icicles were seen hanging from the balconies, and water got all the way down into the basement level.

The tenants of the apartment were home at the time, and Lorenz says they moved some of their stuff already.

Matt Wingard lives in the apartment where the pipe burst and explains their reaction: "He opened his door, and he just had a shocked look on his face, because it was just like a straight waterfall coming down from his door, his door frame, so he didn't really know what was going on."

Wingard says the dollar amount of their items lost is very low. They only had to throw away a few pillows, blankets and clothing items. The biggest price tags that comes with this are possibly tearing out and replacing the carpet and the walls and piping that had to be cut into.

Lorenz says the pipe burst is weather related, and this is a common occurrence when temperatures get frigid cold and warm up again. He says the walls will need to be opened to repair the pipe.