As the temperature rose by more than 20 C in 24 hours in Edmonton, water pipes across the city literally burst under the pressure. 

Edmonton Fire Rescue Services responded to 39 calls related to water pipes between 6 p.m. Monday and 7:20 a.m. Tuesday, said spokesperson Maya Filipovic. 

“At times throughout the night, we had three or four calls going,” she said, noting the calls came from homes, apartments and businesses.

Marscine Pankewicz, general manager of Ramada Edmonton South, said she was awakened by a phone call at around 3:30 a.m.

A large sprinkler line in the archway at the entrance to the hotel had burst, flooding the pull-through parking circle, she said.

The only car parked in the vicinity at the time lost a side mirror, she said.

“Basically, it was, ‘Oh, my gosh, where do we begin?’ ” Pankewicz said of her reaction when she arrived on scene. “You can’t panic. It’s happened.”

The pipe has been capped and the area cordoned off, but 10 hours later she was still not sure the extent of the damage.

‘We’re not the only ones’

Pankewicz said she called the hotel’s insurance provider, and was told the wait time to speak with someone would be 35 minutes.

“I just understand we’re not the only ones in Edmonton,” she said. 

“With the two weeks of drastic weather that Edmonton has experienced here lately, it’s not something that’s a surprise to me.”

Edmonton Fire Rescue Services said crews also responded to calls at the Northgate Centre, the West Edmonton Village recreation centre and an apartment building with commercial storefront along Stony Plain Road at 159th Street. 

EPCOR, which is responsible for system outages up to private property lines, responded to two water-main breaks Monday, said spokesperson Tim LeRiche.

On Tuesday morning, EPCOR was working on an outage with the owner of the property at 3005 119th Street, the Providence Renewal Centre, which includes a convent, he said.

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