Woman says apartment sprinklers caused ceiling collapse

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A collapsed ceiling in a DeKalb County apartment unit is raising major safety concerns for a family.

Channel 2’s Liz Artz spoke to the family at The Reserve at Stone Creek in Stone Mountain.

Mickey Breaux showed her video of the mess she came home to Saturday afternoon. She says she left about 2 p.m. and a short time later got a call from her brother telling her to come home to a collapsed ceiling.

“I came home and the ceiling was on the floor," Breaux said.

Breaux says her floor was soaked, her furniture was wet and her television was ruined.

“The TV will not come on at all," she said.

She was told the neighbors above had a small kitchen fire that set off the sprinkler system. The fire was quickly put out, but apparently the sprinkler system would not shut off, flooding that apartment and causing Breaux’s ceiling to cave in. It subsequently flooded her apartment.

Greater concern comes for the safety of her 10-month-old daughter.

“We still have leaks all over the ceiling," Breaux said. “That's a scary thought to walk through the house and not know if the ceiling is going to fall or not."

The incident happened over the weekend, but Breaux feels it's a big enough emergency to relocate her family. She says she hasn't heard from management.

“We should have been moved to another apartment,” she said.

Artz tried to reach out to the property managers and did get a call back from the maintenance staff. Artz was told someone would call her back.

“I want everything we spent money on replaced,” Breaux said.

Breaux says her carpet is supposed to be cleaned Tuesday, but the ceiling is still leaking. Until this is fixed, it seems pointless to repair the carpet.

WSBTV