On January 13th at 5am a 3-foot water main broke sending over 500,000 gallons of water rushing down Broadway and turning the streets between West 61st and West 65th into a river.
NYC & Con Ed Crews worked for over 3 hours to shut off the water but by that time many of the local building’s basement and utility rooms had already been flooded. Once the water had subsided many building owners were left with damaged service equipment including boiler rooms full of dirt and sand and incapable of providing heat and hot water to their tenants.
Controlled Combustion were contacted by two of the affected buildings to supply and install Mobile Boilers for temporary heat and hot water. Once contracts were signed we sprung into action. Our expeditors worked with our licensed professionals to obtain DOT, DOB Boiler & DOB Electrical Permits for the Mobile Boilers. Our Project Management Team worked on assembling the necessary Field Teams of Electricians, Pipe Fitters, Welders, Technicians and Foremen. Our Foreman surveyed each job to determine the best place to deliver and place each Mobile Boiler as well as how and where to connect to each buildings infrastructure. Our Procurement Team secured the properly sized Mobile Boilers and the necessary pipes, valves, fittings, wiring and ancillary equipment required.
Once boots were on the ground the Foremen and Field Teams worked tirelessly against ever changing conditions as the disaster recovery efforts ensued. Our Foremen coordinated with members of Con Edison, NYC DOB Boiler Division and NYC Emergency Response & Intergovernmental Service Division during the entire process.
Due the dedication, expertise, resourcefulness and hard work of our entire staff we were able to have the first Mobile Boiler online within 24 hours and the second within 72 hours. The second building had much more mud and sand accumulation that the first building.
Neil Wishnia, Vice President of Maxwell-Kates, Inc. one of the buildings property managers had this to say in response to our team’s effort:
“Eric, I must commend Controlled Combustion who quickly came through at a desperate moment in time for my client building, Allegro Condominium, when on the morning of January 13, 2020, the building suffered the results of a severe city induced watermain break.
In desperate need of a mobile boiler as the building lost heat, among other critical services, your team surveyed the situation without delay, expedited the permitting process, and in only a few days had the mobile boiler in place restoring heat in amazingly short order for the residents of the condominium association.
To be able to deliver such good news, so quickly, under what can only be described as dire circumstances, was certainly no small task, and as the manager of the building, could not be more grateful and appreciative of having a company like Controlled Combustion to depend on when you were truly needed the most.
Great job by a great company!”
To ensure the tenants don’t face anymore heat and hot water interruptions our Controlled Monitoring System (CMS) is being utilized to ensure proper operation and fast response to failures that might occur with the mobile boilers.
