Warmer Weather Causes Problems With Frozen Pipes

DENVER (CBS4)- After several days of below freezing temperatures in the Denver metro area and several nights below zero, the warmer weather is causing some issues with pipes.

As the weather warms up previously frozen pipes are beginning to thaw out causing already burst pipes to spew water everywhere.

Tuesday at 8 p.m. a water main break on South Quitman had crews from Denver Water working to find where the pipe was broken.

Crews were busy trying to find where the break was to make repairs. Until they found it and repaired the break at 2 a.m. Wednesday, two dozen homes in the surrounding neighborhoods were without water.

"I was scared, really scared," said one resident.

That crew was one of many making repairs in the Denver metro area on Tuesday as temperatures started to warm up.

In Thornton the ceiling of a Family Dollar store collapsed over an entryway overhang when a water line ruptured. The store didn't suffer a lot of damage and no one was hurt.

It was a different story in Denver near Monaco and Alameda where one basement was badly damaged.

"It's caused quite a bit of damage," said Fitzgerald Service owner Terry Fitzgerald.

The carpet in the basement was left pretty soggy after 4,000 gallons of water pushed through a broken pipe.

"The carpets are all ruined. We're going to have to tear out the ceiling even more," said Fitzgerald. "It's going to be an expensive fix."

Fitzgerald said when the temperatures dip down and then warm up, any frozen water that expanded inside a pipe starts to thaw out and becomes water which rushes out through the break, "Then it breaks loose, pushes the ice through and that's when your leak starts to show up."