If you were driving near Barrington Town Hall this week you may have seen vehicles from a disaster cleanup company parked nearby.

Barrington Town Manager Phil Hervey said a pipe burst inside the town hall on Sunday, Feb. 5, leaking water into the Tax Assessor’s Office and the Planning, Building and Resilience Office. 

The burst pipe followed a cold snap last weekend — temperatures dipped as low as -8 degrees late Friday night and early Saturday morning, Feb. 3 and 4. The thermometer never rose above 16 degrees on Saturday, but by Sunday afternoon, the air had warmed above freezing. 

It was around 5:30 or 6 p.m. Sunday when a water pipe located in an unfinished attic space in the Barrington Town Hall burst and began leaking water. Hervey said a heating unit was not working in the space behind the council chambers. 

It was not clear how much water had spilled into the building’s interior. Hervey said the situation was discovered after water leaked into some smoke detectors inside the building. The water set off an alarm, and firefighters responded to the building.

Hervey said crews scrambled to shut off water to that part of the building. An inspection of the building’s interior showed affected areas — the Tax Assessor’s office and Planning, Building and Resilience Office were hit hardest.

The Rhode Island Interlocal Trust, which insures the town, hired a company to clean-up the water damage. Hervey said crews have been working to dry out the building. 

Despite the burst pipe, town officials were still able to hold the Town Council meeting inside the town hall on Monday night, Feb. 6. Hervey said some of the water had traveled through the space behind the council chambers. 

The town’s website includes a post notifying residents that the Planning, Building and Resilience Office has been temporarily relocated to the council chambers inside the town hall, until further notice.