Water Pipe Break Shuts High School

A heating unit water pipe break has shut down East Providence High School for two days.

The break occurred sometime in the early morning hours on Thursday, Jan. 31, said Interim Superintendent John DeGoes.

Twenty classrooms on two floors of the new wing of the building were flooded, he said.

“There were a couple of inches of water on the floor and it dropped down through the floor onto the ceiling below,” DeGoes said. "The saturated tile then starting falling into the classrooms below."

DeGoes said he had no estimate of damage as of about 8 am this morning. An outside emergency cleanup company, Clean Care of New England, was brought in to start cleaning up the classrooms, he said.

“It would be impossible to conduct business,” he said. “So we shut down the school on Thursday and Friday.”

The adjacent Career and Technical Center also is closed because students there also attend classes at the high school.

DeGoes said he anticipates the school will reopen on Monday, Feb. 4. 

The break was not weather-related, he said. It appeared to be linked to a pressure malfunction that blew off a cap.

Water is believed to have poured out of the pipe for a couple of hours before it was discovered and turned off.

The new wing of the high school is the closest part of the building to Taunton Avenue.