Winnipeg seniors complex "uninhabitable" due to burst pipe, flooding

Donna and Ken Buskell are among residents of a seniors housing co-op in Winnipeg reeling after a water pipe burst in the complex and forced them out with no return date in sight.

Donna and Ken Buskell are among residents of a seniors housing co-op in Winnipeg reeling after a water pipe burst in the complex and forced them out with no return date in sight.

It happened Tuesday afternoon. Residents were told a pipe in the building’s sprinkler system burst after freezing overnight.

“There was insulation and ice cold water, about a foot, all over everywhere in the house,” Donna Buskell told CTV News Thursday.

Many of the building’s 36 suites were flooded, and the ceiling in Buskell’s bedroom – where Ken was napping at the time – collapsed.

“As he got up, the ceiling started to fall in,” she said. “It hit him in the head and another piece fell and hit him in the shoulder.”

The Buskells packed a few bags, mainly clothes and medication, before leaving their home of the past three years.

“As I opened the door to the apartment to get out of there, all my stuff was floating out in the hallway,” said Buskell.