Vancouver Aquatic Centre evacuated, closed due to flood

When is water at a swimming pool a bad thing? When it ends up flooding the mechanical area and blowing the electrical system.

That's what happened at the Vancouver Aquatic Centre Thursday night when a failed sump pump caused flooding in the lowest level of the facility.

It didn't help that the city was in the midst of a heavy downpour, with people reporting waves of rain water running down the street toward the pool which sits on the shores of False Creek.

Staff evacuated the pool at 8 p.m PT Thursday eveningandcrews pumped out the water, but the sump failed again later in the nightleading to an even larger flood.

"Wegot some more water backed up into the building and it touched some of the electrical components around the boiler, so in abundance of caution they shut that down,"said Coupar.

"When it's safe to relight the boiler and get everything up and running and we'll reopen."

Coupar said the problem with the failing sump pumpis not related in any way to the age of the facility. The 41-year-old Aquatic Centre is slated to be replaced at some point in the near future.