There were no injuries and no residents displaced after a waterline broke causing a section of ceiling to collapse earlier this evening at Lincoln Court Retirement Center, located at 850 Lincoln Drive in Idaho Falls. 

The call came in to the Idaho Falls Bonneville County Dispatch Center as a water flow alarm around 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 23. The emergency communication officers then began receiving calls from individuals reporting water coming from the sprinkler system and that there was smoke in the building. The response was upgraded to a structure fire based on the information received. 

The Idaho Falls Fire Department responded with four ambulances, three engines, the ladder truck, and a Battalion Chief. When firefighters arrived on scene they reported no heat or fire in the building, but did report water flowing from the sprinkler system and a ceiling collapse in one of the apartments. 

Idaho Falls Power responded to secure utilities and the Idaho Falls Water Division was requested to assist with the water leak. The Chaplains of Idaho responded to provide assistance as needed. 

Management at the facility had evacuated residents from the immediate area and were able to place the one individual displaced from their apartment in a different room within the building that did not have water damage. Staff began notifying residents’ families and called a restoration company to assist with cleanup.  

The cause of the ceiling collapse and flooding was from a frozen waterline that broke within the sprinkler system above one of the apartments due to outside temperatures below freezing. The waterline break caused significant damage to the one apartment, as well as damage to adjoining apartments, the main lobby, and some administrative offices. Damages are estimated at over $100,000.

• Freezing waterline press release from the Idaho Falls Water Division
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Media Contact: Kerry Hammon, Public Information Officer, (208) 612-8122, [email protected]