FRESNO, Calif. (KMJ/KFSN) — A water leak prompted an emergency evacuation at the Fresno County Courthouse on Monday, sending hundreds outside as alarms sounded throughout the building.
A burst pipe on the third floor was behind the chaos.
“It flooded the jury room and set off some alarms here, so they had to evacuate the building,” Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig said.
He revealed that a hot water line to a valve broke.
One source described it as a burst of boiling water, and said it was so hot that the flooded room began to steam.
“In the heat of the moment, when you have alarms going off and some water that’s flooding from somewhere, you don’t know what’s happening,” Magsig said.
The entire incident caused concern and confusion.
“She said, ‘a pipe broke,’ and she’s like ‘a pipe bomb?’ No, everybody settle down, it’s not that serious,” Mike O’Connor said. He was among the hundreds of people waiting for cases.
For hours, firefighters stayed on the scene and used industrial vacuums.
The court re-opened at about 1:30 PM after nearly the nearly two-and-a-half hour closure.
“Initially, I was concerned that a main had broken and it was flooding different floors, but the flooding was isolated mainly to the third floor,” Magsig said.
“There are some plumbing upgrades that need to be done here,” he said. “There (are) more resources that need to be going into Courthouse Park.”
