Repairs to damage caused by ruptured coils, burst pipe at Decatur Middle finished
DECATUR, Ala. (WHNT) — Less than one week after a winter storm caused three HVAC coils to rupture and a pipe to burst at Decatur Middle, students will be returning to school on Tuesday.
Decatur City Schools (DCS) told News 19 on Friday that the hope was to have students return to the building with normal operations by Wednesday, and Tuesday was set to be a virtual day.
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But, thanks to quick work by maintenance crews to repair water damage caused by the coils and pipe – DCS said that students and staff will be able return to on campus instruction at their regular time Tuesday.
“Contractors and maintenance crews did a remarkable job of drying out, cleaning up, and replacing everything following significant water damage inside the building last week,” DCS said.
At the time of the incidents, officials with DCS said they caused significant water damage throughout the facility.
Water restoration and maintenance crews spent all of Thursday removing items from classrooms as they rushed to address the water damage. The flooring had to be removed to prevent the water from damaging the middle school’s gymnasium floor, which could’ve made the incident even worse.
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School officials say they received a fire alarm call Monday, January 15 just after 5 p.m. After looking at its security system, they discovered there was no fire, but instead saw water coming from the ceiling.
“We arrived shortly before 6 p.m. and found that the HVAC system (which is a chiller/boiler combination) had a coil that ruptured in an overhead unit on the roof, which allowed water to continually flow in,” DCS Deputy Superintendent Dwight Satterfield said.
The school immediately shut off the water, isolated the valves to that particular unit, and was able to get water back into the building to keep the pipes from freezing.
On Tuesday, Jan. 16, at 5 a.m., another coil ruptured. School maintenance crews arrived at the school around 7:30 a.m. that day and spent much of it picking up debris, cleaning up water off the floor, and removing electronics that were damaged.
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Security cameras alerted school officials about the latest water leak after a coil ruptured just before 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 18 in a hallway near the middle school’s gymnasium.
“The coils are starting to deteriorate and as we get these extreme temperatures, the coils ruptured and that’s what’s caused this to happen,” Satterfield said. “Obviously, a timetable for the students to get back in this building is most important to our staff.”
The pipe that burst on Thursday night was on an outside wall and caused minimal damage to one classroom.
Decatur Middle did operate remotely on Monday to allow for the repairs to be completed, while other Decatur City Schools operated on a 2-hour delay.
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