Lizheng Wu surveys the damage. Photo / Belinda Feek
Lizheng Wu surveys the damage. Photo / Belinda Feek
Low temperatures around the country blamed as frost strikes and homes are flooded.
Freezing weekend temperatures caused water pipes to burst, flooding homes and collapsing the ceiling of a Hamilton house.
Firefighters responded to 10 weather-related callouts in Auckland and Hamilton yesterday, while southern firefighters were sent to 32 jobs, the majority of which were in Christchurch for burst water pipes or alarms malfunctioning as temperatures plummeted to -5C.
Burst pipes flooded three homes and a school in Hamilton and another house in Putaruru, South Waikato.
Hamilton man Lizheng Wu arrived home yesterday afternoon to find water streaming down the driveway of his house and out through his garage.
Inside, the ceiling in the lounge and dining room had collapsed on to the floor in at least 15cm of water, after a water pipe was suspected to have frozen and burst.
Mr Wu was busy piling his possessions in his garage later in the day.
All of the carpet in the house was left sodden and the dwelling was unliveable.
Pukete fire brigade station officer Dennis Holden said he suspected the pipes burst sometime through the night.
"It's just slowly filled the ceiling void with water and because of the insulation that's in the roof, it has become waterlogged, and boom, the whole ceiling in the lounge and dining room was on the floor when he opened the door. A mess."
Mr Holden said water pipes burst due to the cold temperatures - water froze and expanded.
"Frozen water takes up more room than liquid water and it's got nowhere to go and puts the pipe under pressure until it can't stand anymore and 'bang'. It'll split wherever the weakest spot is."
Ice fun in Dunedin for James Logan, left, and James Kellow. Photo / ODT
Marist North Harbour Rugby and Sports Complex facility manager Robyn Sabin said the ground floor of the clubrooms was covered in water, which had leaked down through a heat sensor in the ladies' toilets.
"One of the junior coaches was there and he must have seen the water coming out from under the front doors and went to investigate and the whole clubrooms were under water," Ms Sabin said.
"At the moment we don't know if it was frost-related but the fire brigade think that it could have been the cause."
Albany fire brigade senior station officer Athol Conway estimated about 1500 to 2000 litres of water flooded through the premises.
He suspected that, although it rarely happens in Auckland, the burst pipe was likely due to temperatures dropping to zero degrees overnight.
Mr Conway said temperatures plummet in the Albany Basin. "We seem to catch everything here, we get tornadoes, the lot," he said.
Further down State Highway 1 at Tuakau, a pipe burst at the Waikato Water Treatment Plant in Hayward Rd.
