First responders and plumbers dealing with high volume of frozen pipe calls
[anvplayer video=”5154626″ station=”998131″]
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The winter storm slamming western New York over the weekend is causing a lot of problems for everyone, including plumbers and first responders.
As we try to thaw out from the arctic blast, it’s showing that more problems are popping up.
“Today, I had four frozen pipe calls back to back, and I told the customer what to do,” Pro-Tech Plumbing and Construction owner Omari Lozada said.
Lozada said the calls for frozen pipes are picking up.
“It’s paying attention to your local news on weather, two to run a least a spaghetti stream of water on the cold side so that there’s movement and it has no time to freeze, and then the third of all is just make sure your if your home is an older home, make sure the areas that you have problems with yearly are properly insulated.”
The winter storm slamming western New York over the weekend is causing a lot of problems for everyone, including plumbers and first responders.
He’s not the only one getting the call, the owner of AP Plumbing said they’ve had more than 250 calls since Saturday.
Monday afternoon firefighters rushed to Brighton High School to a water pipe burst with minor damage, and there was another at a warehouse on Joseph Avenue.
“We had a standpipe that burst on the fifth floor,” Capt. Abdoch said. “So water was just leaking down.”
A burst 4-inch standpipe caused a massive response from Rochester firefighters to URMC’s clinical research building.
“It kind of affected the building on all floors because the leak started at the top highest part of the building and water just kept going down and going down,” Capt. Abdoch said.
“Ask and educate yourself, where’s my main water shut off?” So if there’s ever an emergency and you guys take a while to get here because there’s other issues,” Lozada said.
Captain Abdoch said aside from education this is something you need to be prepared for as this can happen more often this time of year.
“Water freezes at 32 degrees, but around 39 degrees if it’s going to be something like that outside, don’t be afraid to do a little, you know, little open up the faucet a little bit and let the water move.”