City suspends use of electric current in thawing water pipes
The city of Montreal is suspending the use of machines that use an electric current to thaw frozen residential water pipes out of a concern for safety, Mayor Denis Coderre announced on Wednesday.
“We want to make sure, of course, that the protocol is being followed in a rigorous manner,” the mayor said in making the announcement at the end of the weekly city executive committee meeting.
However, thawing operations will continue using a method that involves steam, he added.
A deep freeze that took hold in Montreal in January and February caused water pipes to freeze at hundreds of homes across the city.
Borough workers and companies hired by a number of the city’s 19 boroughs have been relying on thawing machines using electric currents to help residents unfreeze their pipes. The machines send an electric current to frozen water pipes to melt the ice buildup inside and allow water to flow again.
The city’s decision to halt the use of electric current to thaw pipes until further notice comes after the Montreal Gazette revealed just over a week ago that multiple fires broke out at a Notre-Dame- de-Grâce home as a crew hired by the borough of Côte- des- Neiges– N. D. G. was working to thaw the pipes at the home using electric current.
The Montreal Fire Department is investigating four fires to see if they’re linked to the thawing machines that use electric current, Élise Breault, a spokeswoman for the fire department, told the Montreal Gazette. At least three of the fires are thought to be linked to the machines, she added.
Breault said she could not provide more information, such as the locations of the fires, for the moment.
It was the fire department that asked the Montreal boroughs and surrounding suburbs to suspend the use of the electric current method.
The city has a team of electrical engineers and firefighters working out what method can be used to safely unfreeze pipes, city spokesman Philippe Sabourin said.
“Thawing operations using electricity will again be authorized when all risks of fire associated with it are eliminated,” he said. “According to our information, thawing operations using electricity should be authorized again very soon.”
The city has eight teams of workers continuing to thaw pipes using the steam method, which represents a third of the thawing teams that were working a day earlier, Sabourin said.
There are 167 homes that still have frozen pipes, Sabourin said.
In all, he said, the city will have dispatched thawing teams to 2,560 residences since Jan. 1.