Flood evacuation blamed on 'freak accident'

Karen and Colin McGrory were among the residents hoping to be home by Wednesday

A flood at a tower block which left residents in temporary accommodation was a freak accident, a housing association said.

Four floors of the 17-storey Mercia House in Coventry were affected by the leak with both water and power turned off so the issue could be solved.

The building was evacuated with 63 households having to move into temporary accommodation while others chose to stay with family or friends, Peter Gill, from Citizen Housing said.

The director of housing, care and support added: "It's a freak accident. At the moment what we need to do is to do some further investigations."

Colin and Karen McGrory, who have lived at Mercia House for more than 35 years, described how they had to leave the building without warning.

Mr McGrory said the lift looked like "Niagara Falls" and he could hear the gushing sounds below.

He phoned his wife, who was on shift at the hospital and she came back from work but was not allowed in.

Fire crews were called to Mercia House after the flood on Friday

Mr Gill said a sprinkler joint had become detached and caused the flood.

"The joint seems to have fractured. We don't quite know why that's happened but at the moment our focus is trying to get the building back up and running so we can get people back home," he said.

"The issues around why people can't stay in the building is because the emergency lighting has been affected and the sprinkler system isn't operational.

"It's a high-rise building. The fire brigade has told Citizen that people can't live there."

Power had since been restored but further work was needed to the block's emergency lighting, lifts and the sprinkler system, Mr Gill added.

"We hope to have all that completed by Wednesday," he said.

People can't yet move back to Mercia House and the building is closed

Another resident said the eighth floor was "like a swimming pool".

The man, who asked not be named, said people could not open the door to the sprinkler room because of the pressure of the water.

He added the flood went through the building "like a waterfall" and residents were at first sent to the library, sitting there for "about six hours" until the Red Cross came.

"In five minutes, they were ticking off and everybody was disappearing into hotels," he said.

"I think most of us are at the Ramada now and they keep coming in every day."