Cheektowaga, N.Y. (WBEN) - Members of Western New York's migrant population have been displaced again, due to a broken sprinkler at a local hotel.
"There was a sprinkler on the third floor and my understanding is that it
snapped and flooded out the entire hotel," said Cheektowaga Councilman Brian Nowak on WBEN Monday morning. "It made it uninhabitable."
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The exact cause of the broken sprinkler is unknown. But Nowak said he learned that from time to time, people hang things from the sprinklers. "It can snap in such a way that you can't turn the water off. It appears that could have happened in this case," he added.
"Once the water is going, and you can't turn it off, it releases a huge volume of water and creates big problems."
Nowak does not believe there is anything suspicious about the broken sprinkler.
This type of flooding can also impact the electrical system. Power was turned off to the hotel as a result.
Nowak did not know where displaced migrants were sent as a result of the situation.
This development comes just after as 52 migrant children and their parents moved from a Cheektowaga hotel to an Amherst hotel over the weekend. Amherst Supervisor Brian Kulpa told WBEN the Red Roof Inn location has reached its maximum capacity.
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There has also been controversy and confusion over migrants that have been housed at a Dingens Street hotel. Erie County, the Town of Cheektowaga and state housing contractor, DocGo, have been trying to move them out of that hotel after two recent incidents of sexual abuse. Local officials are relocating the migrants due to its proximity to a neighborhood.
As of Monday morning, Nowak said there were still individuals at that hotel and plans continue toward the relocation process."