JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — We have new information on a potential fire danger brought to light in an Action News Jax investigation.
Wednesday, we showed picture after picture showing thousands of dollars in damage inside condo and apartment homes in South Florida. The billion-dollar lawsuit was filed saying orange CPVC pipes used in fire sprinkler systems are defective.
The suit claims the pipes break down, causing holes, leaks and cracks, leaving the fire sprinkler system unable to put out fires. The lawsuit originated out of South Florida. No local complexes or companies are named in the suit.
We sent the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department the addresses of various apartment and condo buildings in the area and they were able to look up and see if the buildings have the pipes. Now we've uncovered hundreds of local families impacted. JFRD confirmed buildings from the Southbank, to Riverside and Downtown have the pipes.
We learned the following complexes have CPVC pipes:
-220 Riverside Apartments, 220 Riverside Avenue
-The Strand Jacksonville, 1401 Riverplace Boulevard
-Berkman, 400 E. Bay Street
-Wolf Creek, 13364 Beach Boulevard
-Arium Bartram Park, 13525 Bartram Park Boulevard
-Carlyle at Bartram Park, 14701 Bartram Park Boulevard
“I'm a little bit concerned,” said Sharon Choo, who lives in the Berkman in Downtown Jacksonville.
The Jacksonville fire chief said the pipes are installed in many newer buildings. Local plumber Bill Fenwick said he's installed the pipes for drinking water because there's not much else out there to use.
“I don't know of anything that you’re going to be able to put in chlorinated water and run it through, and it be in air or earth, that's not going to deteriorate,” said Fenwick.
We spoke with representatives at several of those complexes Thursday, and they didn’t know about the issues with these pipes, but said they would be paying attention. The new courthouse, main library and one of the newer schools, Atlantic Coast High School, do not have these pipes in the fire sprinkler systems and use metal pipes.