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Central Saanich, Sidney residents receiving emergency assistance after flooding

Weather may have played a part in extensive damage to Sidney apartment
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PEMO (Peninsula Emergency Measures Organization) received three calls for assistance during the last 24 hours, including from residents in a Sidney apartment building after a sprinkler pipe had bursted. (Sidney Volunteer Fire Department/Twitter)

A broken sprinkler line caused extensive damage in a Sidney apartment building, forcing residents into temporary accommodations on Monday (Dec. 27).

“The volume of water that flowed through the ceilings and the walls and the like was such that I wasn’t comfortable with them (staying there),” said Sidney Volunteer Fire Chief Brett Mikkelsen.

“So we had to call PEMO (Peninsula Emergency Measures Organization) to facilitate hotels for these folks.”

Mikkelsen said the water line break between the second and third floor impacted between eight and 10 individuals living in the apartment building located in the 9900-block of Third Street.

Mikkelsen said crews responded to the apartment block Monday morning at around 7 a.m. The cause remains under investigation. “This was in a heated apartment building,” he said. “So it (the cold) weather could definitely be part and parcel of it. But until you rip open ceilings and really get to where the pipe failed, I couldn’t say for certain if it was related to the weather or not.”

RELATED: Arctic outflow leads to new record for peak electricity demand: BC Hydro

It is also not clear how long residents will be out of their building.


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wolfgang.depner@peninsulanewsreview.com



Wolf Depner

About the Author: Wolf Depner

I joined the national team with Black Press Media in 2023 from the Peninsula News Review, where I had reported on Vancouver Island's Saanich Peninsula since 2019.
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