No timetable for reopening Fresno County Hall of Records after burst pipe floods building

A pipe broke Monday afternoon at the Fresno County Hall of Records, flooding the building and forcing hundreds of employees to evacuate.

The pipe burst around noon in an empty room on the northeast corner of the third floor as contract construction workers remodeled the building. Water quickly filtered down to the other floors, dripping into the basement a couple hours later.

Fresno police and county security guarded the building entrance as employees filed in and out with their belongings, some with wet shoes and rolled up pant legs. Two inches of water covered the marble ground floor. A musty smell made its way outside.

Fresno County Assessor Paul Dictos said the historic art deco building, constructed in 1935, is a beautiful antique but should no longer be used.

“Every crisis brings an opportunity with it,” he said. “It’s time for the Board of Supervisors to seriously begin thinking about getting a new building.”

Dictos was out at lunch when he got a call about the burst pipe. He said the county still uses a paper file system for appraisals.

Shortly after Dictos arrived at the building, one of his employees walked outside carrying a plastic crate full of his files. More were inside, some wet. He worried they are damaged.

“This is going to slow us down,” he said.

Another employee showed up shortly after 2 p.m., unaware of what had happened. A security guard told him to go home for the day.

Mitchell Jimenez, commander of Fresno County Security, was one of the first to arrive on scene. He saw some construction workers holding the pipe together.

“It was a very small leak initially, but then as the fire pump kicked in, the pressure built up and it really blew the pipes,” he said. “At that point it came out real fast, real quick. Now it’s going down to the basement. A lot of it will end up in the elevator landings, the stairwells. They’ll have to clean all that out.”

Workers turned off power in the building while the crews cleaned up the mess. They fixed the leak within a couple of hours and started fire pumps back up in case of emergency.

Jimenez said it’s hard to know when the building will reopen.

“There was water going into the breaker panels,” he said. “There’s been a lot of exposure to wiring.”

Robert Bash, director of internal services, said the building will be closed Tuesday. He said all standing water should be out by Monday night — crews already got blow dryers inside. He said electrical engineers will assess the wiring systems Tuesday.

The Hall of Records, at 2281 Tulare St., services the Board of Supervisors, county administration offices, property taxes, and assessor’s and recorder services. Dictos said the county recorder will be open Tuesday across the street inside a training room on the basement level at the Fresno County Plaza Building, 2220 Tulare St.

County officials have yet to assess all the damage. But Bash said ceiling tiles will have to be replaced and possibly the carpet, depending on how quickly it dries.

This story was originally published July 27, 2015 at 3:31 PM with the headline "No timetable for reopening Fresno County Hall of Records after burst pipe floods building."