News

Actions

Chesapeake residents respond after 57 displaced from sprinkler flooding

Posted at 1:53 PM, Jan 08, 2018
and last updated 2018-01-08 16:27:21-05

CHESAPEAKE Va.-  After a pipe broke causing a sprinkler to flood the Herons Landing Apartments in Chesapeake 57 residents are now in hotels, waiting to return home.

“We looked into the hallway and it was just pouring down, like the water was just pouring down into the middle of the hallway. It had started to get a little high because when I walked through my shoes had got wet,” resident Carnell Smith said.

According to the fire department a call came in for a fire alarm going off around 6 p.m. Sunday night.

Carnell Smith says residents were told to evacuate after they were told a sprinkler line burst on top of the roof causing flooding.

“They told us we had to leave and evacuate because they were going to shut all of the power off,” Smith said.

Smith who says he had just finished cooking dinner didn’t know what was going on.

With no time to grab any their belongings, all 57 residents were sent to hotels.

“They took everyone else in that van right there and took them to extended stays. One in Greenbriar and one not too far from it,” Smith said.

Herons Landing is a supportive housing complex for formally homeless adults.

The complex has dealt with a similar issue back in 2014 when a kitchen fire set off a sprinkler causing flooding.

5-year resident Smith says this time was the worst.

“This time it was major I have never seen it come down from the 3rd floor to the main hallways,” Smith said.

Around 11 a.m. maintenance crews started to arrive and unload equipment.

One of the workers told us they received the call early Monday morning.

“I got to wait to get an update to see what’s going on. Hopefully they said maybe three days. Two to three days we would be in a hotel and then we could come back,” Smith said.