COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Rising temperatures in Cobb County are causing frozen fire sprinkler systems to burst, leading to more than 75 service calls for one local fire protection company. The incidents began being reported last Thursday as frozen pipes started to thaw across the region.
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Cobb County fire crews have remained busy as sprinkler systems go into alarm in various facilities. The damage occurs when water moves through pipes that were previously frozen, revealing breaks that were not visible during the freeze.
Fire Protection Services has responded to more than 75 incidents since calls began pouring in last Thursday. Adam Heiser, a partner at Fire Protection Services, said the workload increases significantly once temperatures remain above freezing for a specific window of time.
“When the temp gets above freezing for more than probably four to six hours, that’s when the water is able to find where the pipes are broken and the sprinkler system will go into alarm,” Heiser said.
The severity of the damage varies across different locations in the county. While some repairs are completed quickly, other sites require extensive labor from multiple workers to fix broken branch lines.
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“Some of these are simple breaks that take 25 minutes, but there are some extensive damage where you have multiple parts of the branch line that break that can take two guys all day long, even multiple days,” Heiser said.
Crews have focused their response efforts on residential buildings to protect residents and their property. Heiser said his team tries to respond as quickly as possible to senior living environments and multifamily apartments.
“That’s where people live, right, and their belongings are there,” Heiser said. He also noted that property owners can help mitigate damage by knowing how to handle their equipment during an emergency.
“The best case scenario is where we teach them how to turn the system off so they can stop the water from running,” Heiser said. “You can see it’s going into alarm that means the system would be shut off and that’s how you would close the water from going up.”
On Tuesday afternoon, a crew from Fire Protection Services was working to replace a pipe that burst in a parking deck. Repairs and responses to similar incidents across Cobb County are expected to continue as temperatures rise.
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