Madawaska reopens school after water spill

MADAWASKA – Classes resumed at Madawaska Middle/High School on Wednesday after a one-day hiatus caused by a plug that burst on a hot-water tank sometime during the night Monday.

The hot-water tank was located in the boiler room, where the floor is 23 inches lower than the other floors of the building. Once the boiler room was full, the water spilled into the school.

All 383 students in grades six through 12 had Tuesday off after classes were canceled when water was found in hallways and classrooms.

Some stored books were lost, scores of reams of paper in storage were destroyed and some damage was done in classrooms where items were stored in boxes on the floor. The total amount of damage was still unknown Wednesday.

The full cost of the problem won’t be known for some time, according to Principal Conrad Cyr.

“The entire heating system is just kind of old and rusted out,” Cyr said. “It just finally gave way.

“A lot of things are aging down there, and we must start thinking of attending to things in the heating system,” Cyr said. “I think it’s time to look at the boiler room and the heating system.”

Cyr said changing the system could be expensive.

The heating plant is a steam system, and changes could involve changing everything, including registers in classrooms, hallways and offices.

“We were fortunate that this happened at this time of the year,” Cyr said. “If it happened in January, the problem could have been much more serious. Heat is crucial in a building this size,” he said.

Custodians worked to clean the mess, and local plumbers were checking motors and electrical components that were submerged in water.

Cyr said that while the problem only included replacing the rusted-out plug in the hot-water tank, other, more expensive, things might need repair in the boiler room. Tile floors were also starting to rise Wednesday.

“The boiler room has electrical things underwater, and we may have problems later because of the moisture,” Cyr said.