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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Clean-up crews had a big, wet mess on their hands Wednesday morning after someone opened a water pipe on the 10th floor of the Northern Heights condominium tower.

Gushing water flowed from the stairwell pipe down to the lobby and into two shop spaces in Centre Square Mall.

"It was one of the most terrifying things I've ever experienced," said Alexandra Budgell, a resident on the 14th-floor.

Budgell awoke at 3 a.m. Wednesday to her roommate banging on her door, "screaming that there was a fire. As soon as we got to the 10th floor, water was pouring down the walls and was up to your ankles. There were loud banging noises and people screaming."

Lydia Bardak is one of the lower-floor residents affected by the flooding. She woke up to the fire alarm and discovered the water after feeling her door for fire heat.

"I was wearing slippers and I looked down and saw that my carpet was wet," she said.

Although the flooding was mostly contained to the stairwell and common hallways, water entered Bardak's condo and others'.

"I was mopping up water for a couple of hours last night," she said Wednesday, and expressed concern about the financial implications of the event. "With the fire call last night, and the disaster cleanup starting at four (a.m.), as a condo owner, I'm thinking, 'Oh boy, what's this going to cost us?'"

The water forced a cleanup throughout the building and in the Centre Square Mall nail salon and an empty store that hosts children's programming. Signs on the door blamed the water for the cancellation of a planned Fun Day.

While no one was hurt, Budgell expressed concern about the way her fellow residents reacted to the fire alarm.

"Maybe 50 people out of the 17 floors came out," Budgell said, noting this was the first alarm she's heard in one year living in the building. "There were kids and family members out on balconies watching the fire trucks like nothing was wrong. Firefighters are paid to do their jobs, and had anything worse happened, firefighters would have had to waste their time getting people out who didn't take the time when they had the opportunity to get out."

Flooding inside two or three condos displaced their residents, property manager Ryan Sundberg said. The cleanup continued late Thursday, and Sundberg said it is too early to make a cost estimate. But he is certain the cause was deliberate.

"(The valve) doesn't get opened by itself," he said. "There's a safety cap that holds it, they removed that and opened up the valve. It takes more than one crank to get water to come out. You'd have to crank it numerous times to get full power, and it was at full power."

Sundberg is reviewing security camera footage to find the person responsible. Firefighters were called to the scene, but the department and RCMP say they are not investigating the incident.

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