{"id":105705,"date":"2026-02-05T07:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T07:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/105705\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T07:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T07:15:13","slug":"bitter-cold-wreaking-havoc-on-pipes-what-you-can-do-to-keep-your-home-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/105705\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitter cold wreaking havoc on pipes. What you can do to keep your home safe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">PITTSBURGH  \u2014 A Pittsburgh plumber tells Channel 11 his phone has been ringing off the hook. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">That\u2019s because the bitter cold has been wreaking havoc on people\u2019s pipes. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve walked into places where the water is still pouring from the ceiling, and we are like we need to isolate your water ASAP,\u201d Jake Kicinski told Channel 11.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Situations like that are what Kicinski and his technicians with South Side Plumbing have been running into for the last week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve taken calls from people not knowing where their water meter is, or how to shut the water off, and they\u2019re frantic on the phone with us trying to tell them how to shut it off,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">He told Channel 11 that calls this week have been endless. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cAnything you can imagine. Water lines breaking, water coming through ceilings, basements being flooded out. Anything you can think of.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Channel 1 previously showed you a video of a ceiling collapsing at Point Park University, which caused water to spread down the hall, and down to the floors below.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">RELATED COVERAGE &gt;&gt;&gt; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/news\/local\/reported-pipe-burst-point-party-university-residence-hall-displaces-about-20-students\/F7GHN3NHCJCE7KZRG4SEW4XRME\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/news\/local\/reported-pipe-burst-point-party-university-residence-hall-displaces-about-20-students\/F7GHN3NHCJCE7KZRG4SEW4XRME\/\">About 20 Point Park University students displaced after pipe bursts at residence hall<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Kicinski says the water line problems might not be ending any time soon. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cWe are going to be dealing with this stuff for the next couple weeks because a lot of water lines are still frozen right now. People don\u2019t realize the amount of trouble they\u2019re in until they thaw it out and, they realize the pipe has been broken, and they have water coming through their ceilings or walls,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">In the event you do have a water pipe issue, Kicinski says this is what will help you the most. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cAlways know how to isolate your water. You never know what could happen. Regardless if it\u2019s freezing weather or if it\u2019s in the summer\u2026 a water leak can develop at anytime.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Kicinski still advises people to let their water run, keep the cabinets open, and make sure their thermostat is set higher than usual.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 A Pittsburgh plumber tells Channel 11 his phone has been ringing off the hook. That\u2019s because&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[869,4931,32118,4944,3824,46936,46939,139,859,73,75,74,40935,51061,51060,420,860],"class_list":["post-105705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-channel_11","tag-gabriela","tag-gabriela_deluca","tag-gabriella_deluca","tag-gordon","tag-jake_kaczynski","tag-kaczynski","tag-news","tag-ott_news","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-point_park","tag-point_park_university","tag-southside_plumbing","tag-video","tag-wpxi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}