Frigid temps, broken pipes create ice waterfall at Detroit warehouse

DETROIT (FOX 2) - In Detroit what started as a typical cold snap turned into a chilling challenge for one local building and its caretakers.

Two pipes burst - not just flooding the structure but freezing an entire side into a massive ice wall.

Hilary Golston, FOX 2: "When you saw the sight what went through your mind?"

"What the hell is going on," said Ramsey Beard, co-owner. "Now we’ve got an ice wall here … if anybody likes to climb - please don’t."

The backstory:

Phone video showed what created the ice fall.

"The water is obviously frozen, it damaged a few windows and it’s a little bit hard to work around now, we've got to thaw it out and pump a lot of water out," said Beard. "There was quite a bit coming out at once. There was four gallons a second."

Two water pipes gave way amid the bitter cold inside the sprawling 72,000-square-foot facility.

"We definitely got a little damage on the inside," he said. "Got some equipment, got some mechanical issues on the inside that we've gotta work on."

The building sits at the corner of Beaufait and Sylvester. Ramsey Beard says they discovered the issue late Sunday into Monday morning.

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department says they were notified Monday sent an investigator out the same day, but couldn’t get a crew to turn off the water until Tuesday.

According to them, ice had to be removed from the stop box and the commercial valve needed to be dug up, in order to turn it off.

Golston: "It’s amazing when it gets cold, what can happen with pipes."

"It's very amazing - Mother Nature is a force to be reckoned with," Beard said.

Now they face a daunting task, adding to the monumental challenge of rehabbing the massive building.