Sprinkler line bursts at Grover building
Published 2:07 pm Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Extreme cold weather caused an indoor sprinkler line to burst in the Grover Industries building in Lynn Monday.
A passing motorist called the break in at 2:20 p.m. Monday saying that a fire hydrant had burst on Capps Road. Tryon Fire Chief Joey Davis said actually a line burst inside the building, which flooded a room and spilled throughout the second floor and then downstairs and outside the building. The exact time of the sprinkler line break is unknown.
The sprinkler system is kept on at all times in case of fire to the building.
Davis says the break spilled about a ton of water throughout the building and outside.
Crews shut off the water to the building, isolated the line, cut the water to that line and then turned water back on to the building.
Estimations of damage done are fairly low because nothing was inside the building, which has been unoccupied for several years.
Davis says repairs will be isolated to the line that actually burst. Davis says the break did not compromise the entire sprinkler system.
Grover Industries shut down operations in October, 2008 after operating as a dye plant for coarse count yarns for the past four to five decades. The plant originally began operations in the late 1800s as a hosiery mill.
Long time plant manager Gary Semmel still checks on the building and had just been there a couple of days before the incident.