nothin New Haven Independent | Harbour Village Home “Unlivable” After Fire

Harbour Village Home Unlivable” After Fire

Mary Johnson Photo

A fire at the Harbour Village condominiums on Saturday afternoon was knocked down in about 20 minutes by Branford firefighters.

According to Fire Chief Jack Ahern, thawing pipes in a unit aggravated a smoldering fire condition within a wall. He said the unit is not livable because firefighters needed to tear into walls and cut into the floor to gain access into the crawl space.

Mary Johnson Photo

There’s lots of water and smoke damage,” he said, adding the other units in the section (four total) received smoke damage.

Mary Johnson Photo

Ahern said the department was busy this weekend responding to calls about water damage from broken pipes at various homes and business in town, adding that Porter and Chester Institute on West Main Street had 6 inches of water in its building.

This morning Ahern issued a press release saying the fire department experienced a high volume of water related emergencies due to broken water pipes. He said sprinkler and water supply pipes are breaking at an alarming rate causing thousands of dollars in damage to numerous businesses and residential homes/apartments.” 

He issued a series of tips to prevent these occurrences. With more cold weather and wind coming tonight we urge residents and business owners to prepare now.” The list is at the end of this story. 

Last night at the condo fire, Guilford’s Rapid Intervention Team responded to the call and East Haven was on stand-by. 

Mary Johnson Photo

Ahern said an elderly woman lives in the condo complex at 120 Short Beach Rd., and was home when the fire broke out. Her son lives elsewhere in Harbour Village; she will be staying with him.

Saturday’s incident harkens back to a fire at Harbour Village on Christmas Eve 1979, which Ahern remembers. Six units were destroyed during a blaze in weather much like this past week. Helmets and coats covered in ice, firefighters skidded and slipped along icy surfaces. Ahern said that fire started in a chimney and spread through the attics, which were open and not separated with firewalls. Harbour Village was built in 1971.

In a busy two weeks, Branford firefighters also responded to fires at Medlyn’s Farm on Leete’s Island Road and at RJ Shore Automotive on Shore Drive.

The Fire Department has put together the following tips to help business and home owners prevent these issues.

1) Keep your heat turned up, now is not the time to conserve energy.
2) If you have pipes on an outside wall, open cabinets, closets, or crawl spaces where they may be to get heat in the area.
3) If your neighbor is away contact them if you can and ask them if they turned the heat down or off in their units. This is common for folks that go on vacation or to Florida for the winter. Urge them to turn the heat up or have it turned up if at all possible.
4) Run water slowly if you cannot get heat to hidden pipe areas.
5) If you are a business owner and have a sprinkler system make sure your building is kept warm 24/7 and if you have a dry” system make sure the compressor is operating properly.
6) Know where your water shut off is in case of a break
7) If you have a frozen pipe(s) shut the water off and call a licensed plumber for help
8) Contact us if you have any issues or concerns

Sign up for our morning newsletter

Don't want to miss a single Independent article? Sign up for our daily email newsletter! Click here for more info.


Post a Comment

Commenting has closed for this entry

Comments

Avatar for robn