Frozen sprinkler pipes send fire crews scrambling

Frozen sprinkler pipes at Stop and Shop and Ridgefield High School on Monday and again on Wednesday, and a malfunctioning water valve at the Prospector Theater on Saturday, sent the fire department scrambling around town to systems being affected by the recent cold weather.

Because of the cold weather, some peoples pipes are freezing and may break since ice expands when frozen, said Fire Chief Kevin Tappe on Tuesday. We have seen a couple of issues regarding frozen or broken fire sprinkler system pipes lately.

At Stop and Shop, fire crews found a broken sprinkler head outside the bottle return area. It was the same exact head that broke last winter, Chief Tappe said.

Stop & Shop had their sprinkler company repair the pipe, he added. The sprinkler system was shut off for a short period while the work was being done.

The sprinkler pipe in the front lobby of the high school also froze Monday when kids were not in school.

Chief Tappe said the system was shut down while repairs were being made.

He added that if a required sprinkler system is incapacitated or shut down for more than four hours, the business must close or hire off duty firefighters to provide a fire watch.

The number of firefighters required is determined by the fire marshal based upon square footage and occupancy, he explained.

Chief Tappe said the Prospector didnt suffer from a frozen sprinkler pipe, rather a relief valve on the fire sprinkler system had malfunctioned allowing water to escape.

The management decided to shut off the sprinkler system until repairs could be made, he said. They also chose not to close the business and hired two firefighters for seven hours on Saturday, 14 hours on Sunday and another four hours on Monday until repairs could be made and the system restored.

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Frozen sprinkler pipes send fire crews scrambling