A water leak forced 29 residents from the Scottdale Court apartment complex on Christmas Day, and it’s unclear how long it will be until they can return to their homes.
Greensburg’s Homes Build Hope, which developed the complex in 2013, expects most of the displaced residents will be able to move back after the building’s fire suppression system, which was affected by the leak, can be brought back online.
For now, the nonprofit is housing the residents, many of them elderly, at an area hotel. “Hopefully, they can return soon,” Homes Build Hope Executive Director Kristin Zaccaria said.
She said a crew is slated to look at the fire suppression system this week.
A waterline that was part of the sprinkler system broke about 5:30 p.m. in an attic area of the building in the 200 block of South Broadway, Scottdale Fire Chief Dave Wendell said. He said residents had to be moved to other accommodations because the building’s water supply had to be shut off, and the fire suppression system was out of service.
It may take longer for residents to return to eight apartment units that had anywhere from minimal to severe water damage.
“We have professionals in doing mitigation and reconstruction of the affected units,” Zaccaria said. “They’re cleaning and drying them out and doing some reconstruction, if necessary.”
“From the third floor down, we had water on the north end of the building,” Wendell said. “The property managers were on site within an hour and we got the water shut off pretty quickly.”
A Greensburg Fire Department salvage unit helped to divert water from the building, and the Westmoreland County Transit Authority helped to relocate the displaced residents.
Zaccaria believes sub-zero temperatures that prevailed through the region over Christmas weekend likely were a factor in causing the water line to break.
“This is a new building and it’s very well insulated, but the temperatures got so low that weekend,” she said. “The best we can tell is that (water) may have frozen in the line at some point.”
Zaccaria didn’t have a cost estimate for the water-related damage to the building but said most of it should be covered by insurance.
“Some of the residents have renter’s insurance that will kick in at some point and help assist those folks in the water-damaged units,” she said. “We’re working with human service agencies to get help for the folks who may not have insurance.”
She said Homes Build Hope also is reaching out for help from other agencies to provide continuing hotel accommodations for the affected residents.
