As deep freeze lifts, bursting water pipes flood homes, businesses

Calgary’s recovery from last week’s deep freeze isn’t without its difficulties.

As the mercury rose, city fire crews spent the first couple of days of 2018 responding to dozens of broken water pipe calls — displacing residents and causing headaches across the city.

In a 24-hour period between 7:30 a.m. Monday and 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, fire department spokeswoman Carol Henke said crews attended close to 125 water-related calls in the city — 60 by 5:30 p.m. Monday.

The year-ending deep freeze that blanketed much of Canada began almost as swiftly as it ended — with temperatures rising 24 degrees between 3 a.m. Jan. 1 and Jan. 2.

Water — like most liquids — contracts as it cools toward its freezing point.

As water reaches 4 C, however, it begins to expand — increasing in volume by as much as nine per cent by the time it freezes into ice.

This unique behaviour is only seen in a handful of other chemical compounds, and is why burst pipes are so common in the winter.

As temperatures rose throughout the city on Monday, split pipes previously plugged by ice let forth torrents of water in buildings throughout the city.

A four-storey complex on 17A Street near 19th Avenue S.W. was evacuated on New Year’s Day after a broken pipe on the building’s top floor flooded units below.

As well, an overnight pipe break shut down a coffee shop on Stephen Avenue near Centre Street, causing an undetermined amount of damage.

Broken pipes also forced the closure of Airdrie’s RCMP and municipal enforcement building, suspending police front-counter services as well as criminal record checks, collision reports and fingerprinting requests.

In Calgary, city municipal water crews worked to repair five previously reported water main breaks that occurred between Dec. 23 and Dec. 29., affecting about 43 homes in the communities of Richmond and Cambrian Heights.

A city of Calgary spokesperson said no reports of municipal water main breaks were received over the weekend.

Beginning in 1980, an initiative to replace aging metal water mains with more-resilient PVC pipe have greatly reduced the amount of broken water mains in the city.