Montreal officials are warning residents to be cautious when trying to thaw frozen pipes in the wake of a four-alarm fire in Verdun on Thursday that began with a man using a blowtorch.

Fire department Chief of Operations John Primiani advised Montrealers not to use an open flame on pipes.

“There is a procedure every person in Montreal can do,” he said. He advised Montrealers to follow fire department-approved procedures, and if they don’t work, to call a professional plumber.

 

Plumber Geoffrey Unger said he’s been inundated with calls about frozen or burst pipes over the last few days. He noted that changing technology has made his job harder.

“It requires an expert. It’s a growing problem, lots of people are using plastic water pipes in houses and we can’t thaw them with conventional methods. We can only open up the water and apply direct heat if you know where it’s frozen in the wall. With copper, you used to be able to pass current through it and thaw it even if you didn’t know where it was frozen.”

Unger said he has told many customers to crank up the heat for a few days and try to wait out the cold. That presents its own problems as once temperatures raise is when broken and burst pipes make their presence known.

“If you know of an area that’s prone to freezing, be proactive,” he said. “Raise the heat a bit when it gets cold, let the water drip slowly in a tap and that’s pretty much all you can do.”

Primiani said Thursday’s fire is part of a larger problem of Montrealers not being cautious when trying to combat extreme cold. He advised everyone in the city to ensure they have operating smoke detectors in their homes.

“In intense cold, we always see secondary heating systems that aren’t always well kept, or are older models,” he said. “You have all the Christmas things, the trees, the lights, overloading circuits. Or a dry tree that’s not always hydrated with heating systems close to that… It’s all a recipe for a possible fire.”