Cracked Pipe Floods Video Store

Tue., Jan. 13, 1998

By Tracy Ellig tracye@spokesman.com

Lisa Clifford started her Monday by watching water pour from the ceiling vents in the video store where she works.

“It was literally like a waterfall,” said Clifford, office manager for the Entertainment Unlimited store at the Five Mile Plaza on West Francis.

When store manager Farand Gunnels arrived at the store around 7:45 a.m., he was greeted by fire alarms and then a popping, banging sound, Clifford said.

The water main feeding the store’s fire sprinkler system cracked, which started the deluge. Within half an hour, water was 2 to 3 inches deep in some places in the store.

After slopping onto the floor, water ran into the store’s basement where party supplies are kept.

By 8:15 a.m., the water main had been turned off and in another 30 minutes crews from Rug Rescue arrived to start sucking up the mess.

Clifford said she is puzzled by the water pipe break. The store is heated continuously, she said. Spokane temperatures were below zero Sunday night.

Damage is likely to be in the tens of thousands of dollars, she said.

The store was insured, but there are some things that may be difficult to replace, such as the cardboard boxes for the thousands of videos in stock. The videos themselves were not damaged, but the boxes are likely to curl up from the moisture.

“Movie boxes - people might think that’s silly, but that’s an important part of our business, it’s how people tell what they’re going to watch. For us to get new boxes we might have to buy new movies,” Clifford said.

The store expects to be open for video rentals by Wednesday or Thursday. Movies that are due will be recorded as late, but the charges will be waived. The store is owned by Mary Berg of Spokane.

Next door in the Five Mile Plaza shopping center, Starbucks Coffee also was hit by water damage. None of the store’s inventory was damaged, but a wall and ceiling tiles were soaked.

Starbucks will be open this morning at 6 a.m.

Standing on a wet floor in big rubber boots, Starbucks service technician Kris Storset didn’t seem too ruffled by the scene.

“It could have been worse,” said the nine-year service tech veteran. “It could have been sewage.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

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