Granada Water Supply Worries Officials
March 30, 2009, 5:48 pm
The investigation continues into the cause of Saturday's fire that destroyed 25 apartments inside the Granada Complex in Millcreek. CLICK FOR VIDEO
There was a shortage of water during the fire and that remains a concern not only to the residents, but to firefighters.
Flames burst from the roof of an apartment building and firefighters had their hands full. There is only one water line that serves the entire complex. Lots of equipment was there, but there was little water.
"We had to find another water source, said Kearsarge Fire Chief Bill Nichols. "We had to have three or four other pumpers in here to lay all the way down into Peach Street where there's a 16 inch main line there. We hooked into that."
That Peach Street water line was over a quarter mile from the fire. The effort took time. And time means everything when containing a fire.
"Yeah, it did hinder the fire fighting. I feel that there probably wouldn't be as much damage to this if we had the water supply," Nichols said.
The water situation at the Granada Apartments has the attention of the Millcreek Township supervisors.
"I don't know all the facts right now, but we need to sit down with the right department. If it's the Erie Water Authority, we need to sit down with Paul Voytek and talk to him and find out how we're going to fix the problem in that area," said Millcreek Supervisor Joe Kujawa.
According to Erie Water Works Executive Director Paul Voytek, the apartment management owns the water system at the Granada, even though the authority supplies the water. He says it is management's responsibility to make improvements.
But, Voytek says the authority will sit down with all concerned to hopefully come up with a solution, so this kind of water problem will not happen again.
John Last
