It was business as usual Thursday morning at the Sonora Community Centre one day after a sprinkler head burst causing significant damage to many parts of the building early Wednesday morning.
“We have a lot of equipment in here … 70 dryers and a numerous dehumidifiers, but we’re open for business,” said Gerald Davis, director of community services for the Town of Osoyoos, who works out of the Sonora Centre. “The gym, fitness centre and public library are open this morning and we’ll try and run all of our programs that we have scheduled.”
The sprinkler head burst around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning and tons of water was dispensed for about 15 minutes before the centre’s maintenance staff member arrived on the scene and called the Osoyoos Volunteer Fire Department, said Davis.
Meeting room No. 1 and the centre’s boardroom absorbed most of the water damage, he said.
“We brought in Sunrise Restorations and they did a terrific job cleaning up the mess,” he said. “They picked up over 100 gallons of water from Meeting Room 1 alone. Most of the water damage was contained to that one area of the building.”
Davis’ office and that of his secretary also sustained significant water damage as much of the ceiling tiles were saturated with water, he said.
Sonora Centre staff, the fire department and Sunrise Restoration staff worked incredibly hard on Wednesday and Thursday to clean up the mess and ensure the centre was able to reopen by Thursday morning, said Davis.
The Sonora Centre was an old school that was first built in the 1940s, said Davis. The town purchased the building and converted it into a community centre eight or nine years ago.
“I’ve been here seven years now and this is the first time anything like this has ever happened,” said Davis. “With the amount of water damage caused by one sprinkler head bursting, it could have been a lot worse, that’s for sure.”
