SUFFOLK, Va. — Around 50 people were displaced from an apartment building in Suffolk after a sprinkler head activated in a laundry room, causing extensive water damage, Suffolk Fire & Rescue said.
Firefighters responded to a four-story apartment building in the 300 block of South Saratoga Street just after 6:30 Sunday night. No fire or smoke was found upon arrival, and it is unknown what caused the sprinkler head to activate, according to SF&R. Firefighters secured the water flowing from the sprinkler head.
Water damage spread through the wing near the laundry room, from the fourth floor to the first floor. Most displaced residents will be staying with family, SF&R says. The alarm company is addressing sprinkler head repairs and the fire alarm system.
Residents say they have received little to no communication from apartment management about when they will be able to safely return home. Attempts to reach an employee at Saratoga Place were not returned.
Antoine Barns, who evacuated and stayed with family, said the situation unfolded suddenly.
"All of the sudden the alarm is going off. We got to leave the building its crazy man. Then it's raining got people with their kids out here man, then waiting for someone to tell us something we sitting out here with nobody calling us to help us out we just looking crazy right now," Barnes said.
Barns described the difficult position residents found themselves in with nowhere to go.
"Now we stuck out here nowhere to go if I didn't have no family I'd be hurting," Barnes said.
Suffolk Fire Marshal Chris Cornwell said the goal is to have power restored by the end of Monday. Investigators have narrowed the cause down to two possibilities: a mechanical malfunction, which Cornwell said could be unlikely, or possible tampering. They are still working to determine exactly what happened.
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