Students and staff at Rutherford House in the central city have been watching water pour from the ceiling for at least half an hour.
George Edwards said he was studying in the building, part of Victoria University’s Pipitea campus, when he saw water begin “dribbling down on a couple of people just having coffee”.
Onlookers watch water flood the ground floor of Victoria University's Rutherford House in Wellington. Photo / Ethan Manera
“Within 30 seconds all this water just started rushing down like a waterfall,” he said.
“It was pretty crazy because it just kept coming, it didn’t stop.”
Newstalk ZB reporter Ethan Manera said he was sent a video of the deluge and went to see for himself.
He saw “heaps of water coming out of the ceiling on the ground floor above the Lab coffee shop . . . tons of water flooding through the ceiling, it seems like maybe the sprinkler?”
Manera said the leak had started small but soon took over the whole ceiling. Water on the floor was about ankle-deep.
“All the cafe workers were still having to wade through it to pack up stuff.
“It was going for about half an hour but it was quite intense for a moment there, just, like, litres and litres of water seeping through the ceiling.”
Video of the incident shows water streaming in a steady downpour onto tables and chairs in the cafe. Food appears to have been abandoned on on table as onlookers watch.
The water leaked from the mezzanine floor to the ground floor.
University chief operating officer Tina Wakefield said the cause of the leak was being investigated.
“Water leaked from the mezzanine floor to the ground floor of Rutherford House, on Victoria University of Wellington’s Pipitea campus, for around 15 minutes this afternoon,” she said in a statement.
“We are acutely aware of the importance of conserving water in Wellington at the moment and university staff were quickly on site to stop the leak.
“The leak was confined to a relatively small area of the ground floor – the section that is occupied by The Lab cafe. There were no customers in the cafe when it occurred, but the cafe workers were still on site.
“The cause of the leak is being investigated and the minimal water damage is being cleaned up. Damage will be repaired over the weekend and at this stage we expect The Lab to be able to reopen on Monday.”
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.
