Published: January 19, 2009 11:02 pm      

Burst pipes lead to flooding at Archery Zone, AmeriServ

Under normal circumstances, Bill Puruczky would rather not be called to his store by a tripped burglar alarm.

Puruczky was glad to find the system was working Sunday.

He arrived at The Archery Zone, 1103 Frances St., Richland Township, just before 6 p.m. to find a couple of inches of water on his shop’s floor and more pouring down.

The current stretch of very cold temperatures had claimed another victim as a pipe froze and burst on the second floor above The Archery Zone. That flow of water caused the ceiling in Puruczky’s store to collapse, knocking down displays and merchandise – and setting off the burglar alarm in the process

Puruczky estimated Monday that water flowed freely from the ruptured pipe for about six hours.

He said he couldn’t even begin to estimate the damage and anticipates his store will be closed most of the week.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to reopen right away,” Puruczky said. “The main thing is getting things dried up so we can get back to operations.

“I just can’t believe what water can do. You think it’s just water, but what a mess.”

Puruczky said that once the space is dried out, he will resume business as renovations are made.

In another incident Sunday, a sprinkler head burst in AmeriServ Financial’s main office in downtown Johnstown as a result of frozen pipes and sent water cascading onto the first floor.

The bank appeared to escape major damage.

The water mostly ran into the basement area, where it did have some effect on the bank’s print shop and vault.

Jack Babich, senior vice president, said Monday that the office was spared more damage because the loss of pressure in the sprinkler system immediately set off an alarm to the fire department. The water ran unchecked for only about 20 minutes.

The office was closed Monday in observation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The bank will open as usual today, Babich said.

Any damage in the vault won’t be realized until today when the automatic time-locked door reopens, Babich said.

He noted that it didn’t appear that any other damage was caused to the main banking area on the first floor, which was renovated last year.

“Other than the carpeting, I don’t anticipate any real damage,” Babich said. “But we won’t know for sure until a couple of days from now when we can see if any of the drywall sucked up any of that water.”