OREM, Utah — Tens of thousands of gallons of water poured into the Orem Family Fitness Center Wednesday as a result of the sprinkler system malfunctioning. No injuries were reported.
It happened just before noon when Jacob Conover was working out with his fiance.
“The alarm just started going off and we heard, ‘There’s an emergency, everyone please make it to the nearest entrance,'" said Conover.
Not knowing what was going on, Conover said he ran upstairs to grab his sweatshirt and saw the water coming down.
“I just see the ceiling just, it wasn’t like a light rain,” he explained. “It was like a downpour from like, it stretched from one corner of the building to the complete other end of the building and then it was just flooding downstairs.”
Orem Communications Manager Pete Wolfley said the reason the system went off is still unknown.
The city brought in all the employees, the designer of the fire system and the inspectors to investigate on Thursday.
According to Wolfley, crews sprung into action as soon as flooding occurred to turn off the sprinklers and begin mopping and vacuuming up the water.
Flood mitigation crews worked overnight to clean up what he said will likely be thousands of dollars of damage to the community hub.
“I mean, it's a fairly new rec center over these past couple of years, so it's, it's kind of sad that you know, a place that's so nice has to go through renovations right now,” said Conover. “But hopefully that the city will help so it can be up and running again just because so many people rely on it.”
Wolfley said they hope to open up the center by Friday, and any hardwood floor areas like the basketball gym, dance studio, and gymnastics room in the next two weeks.
