LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Frozen water pipes have been keeping Lexington firefighters busy over the last 48 hours. They've responded to more than 50 calls of broken pipes.
"I mean it is 2:00 in the morning and that's how we woke up," says Jeremy Potter, a resident at the apartment. "With water coming underneath the door and the hallway flooded."
Students who live on Angliana Avenue were woken up around 2:00 Wednesday morning to find water on their floors, in the hallways and seeping from their ceilings. Fire officials say burst water pipes that set the complex's sprinkler system off is to blame.
The water damaged 13 of these apartments and forced students out in the cold. But, they're not the only ones. Firefighters have responded to dozens of calls already and they anticipate many more.
"The severe cold weather has basically exposed any weaknesses there were to the plumbing in buildings all over town," says Major Matt Galati with the Lexington Fire Department. "Anything that could've been exposed to below freezing temperatures. We're getting a lot of sprinkler and regular water pipes breaking as a result of the cold weather and it's keeping us very busy."
Firefighters have told residents to keep the heat on so that water doesn't freeze and create even more problems.