Cold weather causes pipe to burst in Kirkland

KIRKLAND - The cold snap is creating problems for residents in Kirkland. A pipe burst at a condo complex this morning, forcing several people out of their homes.

“I’m not looking forward to this,” says Shweta Desai, as she looks at her kitchen floor. She thinks it will have to be replaced, after water dripped into her condo this morning.

“I had two or three towels and my floor was dry. But you can see it's lifted here, so it did get in.”

It also soaked through her front closet, ruining a few coats and shoes.

“This water I did not notice until two or three hours ago. I thought it was clear, there's nothing. And then it was all wet.”

Desai is not the only one in this complex who has a clean-up in front of them. Several units were damaged when a sprinkler line on the top floor froze.

“The insulation was below the pipe, not wrapping the pipe. So it snapped and flooded all the way from the fourth floor down to the garage,” says Tony Esposito with Infinity Fire Protection.

Esposito says this time of year, he gets lots of calls about broken pipes. He says keeping the water on is one way to prevent problems.

“Just leave a small drip, so water is consistently running through. So it doesn't clog up and freeze and break.”

Esposito says it doesn’t matter if you live in a newer home or building. When temperatures start falling, pipes are vulnerable.

“It has a lot to do with insulation or people not leaving their heaters at the right temperature. If you keep it at the right temperature, a lot of times it won't do that.”

The man who lived in the condo where the pipe burst did not leave his heat on, because he’s been out of town.

“He’s going to come into a broken home,” says Desai. “His door is broken into, and a lot of damage in there.”

She knows she’s lucky she didn’t live directly below that unit, or she might have had more damage.

“Thankfully my ceiling is ok. That would have scared me. I would have been out of there if I saw cracks in my ceiling.”