A broken sprinkler in the Gap on Main Street caused substantial damage yesterday to property and merchandise in both the Gap and the Lyme Angler when both stores were flooded.
A member of the Hanover Fire Department, who asked to remain anonymous, said the sprinkler went off for about an hour and caused several thousand dollars worth of damage after flooding the Gap, a national clothing chain and the Lyme Angler, a sporting goods shop that is directly below the Gap.
The water also leaked into the Hanover Inn next door, where a small portion of the wine cellar was flooded but no damage was incurred.
"There was more damage in the Angler than there was in the Gap," the fireman said.
The Lyme Angler remained open yesterday afternoon and a Gap spokeswoman said the Gap will reopen this morning after closing yesterday afternoon for cleanup.
The fire department source said it is unclear what activated the sprinkler.
"There was no fire," he said. "Someone might have bumped into it, or it might have just been defective. We honestly don't know."
Cara Culvert, an assistant manager at the Gap, said when she arrived at the store in the morning she noticed there was something wrong with one of the sprinklers.
"There were pieces of the fixture on the floor when I got here," Culvert said. "Then we went out to lunch and when we came back the sprinkler was going off."
Culvert said although only one sprinkler went off, "it sprayed all over the store" and she estimated half of the store was "ruined" by the water.
Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry C.L. Ravaris, who said he "fills in" at the Lyme Angler, said "water seeped through the ceiling and soaked the carpets and some of the merchandise."
"Some of the merchandise was damaged but none was really ruined," Ravaris said. "Other than the carpets being wet, I don't know exactly how extensive the damage really is."
The fire department source said they responded both to the call from the Gap and from the alarm going off, which immediately alerted the fire department.
"We had to kill power to the building [which houses the Gap and the Lyme Angler] because the water leaked into a control panel," the fire department source said.
Water from the sprinkler ran out onto the sidewalk and into the street.
Once firemen arrived and turned off the sprinkler, they used a broom to sweep water out of the store. The source said it took firemen two hours to clean up all three locations.
