Fire damage at Galloway booster station will be covered by insurance

Galloway booster station. Photo by Fritz Swanson.

by Marsha Chartrand

On September 20, about 1:40 pm, an equipment failure caused two fires to break out at the Galloway Drive booster station, causing significant damage.

The issue arose due to an employee finding a water leak with a cooling line. The employee attempted to fix the cooling line, without informing anyone of the issue. The employee did not completely depressurize the water line prior to attempting to fix it, causing the water line to burst and 70 PSI of water to hit all of the electrical components. By the time he informed the Water and Wastewater Supervisors of the water line issue, the electrical at the booster station was already lost and the fires had occurred.

The lone on-site employee at the time did not contact his associates for help, which exacerbated the problem.

“If the employee had contacted his supervisors about the initial water line break, this could have been handled in a responsible way by our staff,” said City Manager Michael Sessions. “However, the employee attempted to fix an issue without proper backup onsite or, from what I’m understanding, the proper equipment to isolate the valves necessary.”

Sessions originally estimated the expense to the City as between $15,000 and $20,000, which ended up as $15,923.60 total. The insurance claim was submitted on September 30 and approved (less $1,000 deductible) by the insurance company.

The entire situation was resolved by about 9pm that evening, requiring several hours of staff and administrative overtime.

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by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.