Ottawa man burned after pipe bursts in apartment building

Hallway with water. Source: Crystal Macormack

A 55-year-old man is in hospital tonight with severe burns to his legs after a pipe burst in a downtown apartment building this morning. It's believed the man may have left the outside door to his unit open right beside a radiator.  Clearly compressed hot water and cold air do not mix.  In fact, the result can be explosive.

Ottawa paramedics were called to the apartment building at 450 Laurier Avenue East around 8 a.m. this morning.  The building is owned by Ottawa Community Housing.  One of the tenants says water was flooding the hallways, running down all 7 floors of the building.

Steven Bowman lives next to the injured man and says the fire alarm went off this morning and his wife called 911.  Then water started pooling inside their apartment.

‘The water was coming in and I didn't know where it came from,’ says Bowman, ‘and there was a rumor, someone said it was the boiler on top, the roof blew but I got hold of one of maintenance guys. It was the guy next door who wasn't home and the pipe blew.’

In fact, his neighbor was home. Ottawa paramedics say he suffered 2^nd and possibly 3^rd degree burns to his feet and legs. He was transported to hospital.

Ottawa Community Housing says several units were affected.  The CEO, StéphaneGiguère, says an investigation is currently underway to try to determine what happened but he says there was frost on the pipe on the radiator and also a clogged sink.

“I can’t speak to the current incident,’ Giguère says, ‘but what we have experienced in the past is that tenants have left windows and doors open close to radiators.  I don’t know if that is what happened in this case. I can’t stipulate the reason but we are looking into it now.’

There was water damage to 30 units in the building.  Most of it has been cleaned up and no tenants will be displaced.