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Burst Pipes at Day Care Center

BLOOMSBURG — A big danger in this bitter cold is frozen and burst pipes. A day care center in Bloomsburg learned that the hard way. Instead of children, t...

BLOOMSBURG -- A big danger in this bitter cold is frozen and burst pipes. A day care center in Bloomsburg learned that the hard way. Instead of children, the classrooms at Columbia Child Development Program were filled with teachers cleaning and fans drying the carpets. That's because the cold weather made a big mess.

"We had two main water lines break. The plumber said there were at least 13 different breaks that they found," Debbie Jones said.

Debbie Jones is the child care coordinator at the center in Bloomsburg, which has more than 150 children from newborn to school age.

The kids were there when the first pipe burst in the Pre-K room. Employees acted fast and moved the children.

"As I came back, there was just water gushing," Rebecca White said.

About two hours later, the main water line broke over the pantry, into the infant room.

"We then had to move the infants to another classroom quickly and then we moved all of that furniture too so that it was safe for those babies," Jones said.

It's not safe for the kids to be here, so the day care center has been closed since Tuesday afternoon.

"We got lucky in that I'm off, but I did have some things," Peter Schultz said.

Peter Schultz and his wife both work. He has off today so he could stay home with their daughter Katie. But others aren't so lucky.

"I imagine they don't necessarily have other options. We just got lucky with the timing," Schultz said.

"Very rarely do we close, and they know if we do it's for an emergency reason," Jones said.

Employees tell Newswatch 16 they actually feel lucky this happened when it did and not over the weekend, especially since it was a three-day weekend.

15 employees are on hand to get the center ready to reopen next week.

"Clean up and make sure everything is safe for the kids to return," White said.

The Columbia Child Development Center is expected to reopen Monday. No one was hurt when those pipes burst.

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