Rockland Firefighters employ squeegees to clean up after CMCA gallery pipe break

Sat, 01/19/2019 - 1:00pm

    ROCKLAND — Rockland firefighters spent an estimated 1.5 to two hours mopping water from the floor of Center for Maine Contemporary Arts, Saturday, Jan. 19.

    Around 7:30 a.m., firefighters arrived at the art gallery on Winter Street to find water flowing from a rear entrance. Their investigation of the structure located a water main break prior to the first shut-off valve at the rear servivce room, according to Asst. Chief Adam Micelli.

    The entire floor space of the one-story structure was covered with water, including electrical outlets and the electrical room where the break started.

    Maine Water Company and Central Maine Power were then called to shut off utilities. As firefighters waited the half hour for the respective utility companies to arrive, the responders helped move boxes and picked up items from the water.

    The time was also filled by sending someone to a hardware store for more squeegees.

    Rockland FD carries four squeegees on their truck, according to Micelli. This time around, four was not enough. Instead, eight firefighters spent 1.5 hours of the entire three-hour on-scene time using the mopping device to constantly push water “wherever you get water to go out,” he said.

    Those exits included doors and bathroom floor drains.

    “Fortunately, the gallery had a concrete polish floor, and the Sheetrock was off the floor by an inch and a half,” Micelli said. “Most of that was not saturated with water.”

    By 8:15 a.m., Rockland temperature was 14 degrees, with an expected daytime high of 17 degrees. This follows a high of 34.8 degrees recorded yesterday at 4:49 p.m.

    Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com