The Bakery in New Paltz will be closed for business for at least a week after a pipe supplying water to the fire suppression system burst Thursday afternoon. Despite the problem occurring during business hours and being identified quickly, the basement was flooded with at least three feet of water before the torrent was finally shut off. Cleanup efforts from what the owner called a “life-altering mess” began Friday morning.
Owner Dawn Borrello said that the first sign of trouble was water pouring into the bathroom. The pipe that had burst was between there and the stairwell to the second floor seating area. “This isn’t one of the thin pipes that supply water,” Borrello said. No, this one supplies the sprinkler system, and “it would not stop. We had a river in TheBakery.” Turning off the water in the building was unsuccessful; the pressure was simply too great.
Mike Kilmer, who runs the Bicycle Rack next door and has owned both buildings since April of 2019, said that the efforts to get the water turned off took quite some time. “I got a call at 4:00, and you don’t want to get a call like that: ‘there’s three feet of water in the basement.'” Village workers were called to cut off the flow from the water main, but soon discovered that the access cover “was seized into place,” according to Kilmer. “They were going at it with hammers and torches, and finally Lance [Scharf, of Lance’s Plumbing Service] said, ‘Everybody back up,’ and brought in a sledge hammer. They went at it until it finally exploded.”
Borrello said that removing the maintenance cover “took well over an hour.”
The amount of water in the basement was probably around 750 gallons, based on it taking about three hours to remove it with a pump that moves 250 gallons an hour. Down there were all the dry ingredients used for the business, including flour, sugar, mixes, and chocolate, as well as five full chest freezers that were floating aimlessly around the impromptu icy lake. Since power had to be shut off to the entire building, “Nothing is salvageable,” said Borrello.
Kilmer and Borrello were there Friday morning “holding each other up, and going through a battlefield,” as Kilmer put it. The building owner said that neither of them slept more than four hours the night before. “If you get into a car crash, you know what to expect. No one has a handbook for this, and you have to hope to be guided through it.” According to Kilmer, everyone from the insurance agent and adjuster through to the plumber and cleaners called to the site have been doing just that.
Borrello is grateful for the outpouring of support from community members, and promised to provide updates as to when the beloved business’ doors will be reopened. There was one piece of good news that can be reported: The Bakery’s sourdough starter, which is at least 40 years old, survived this tragedy.
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