There is still no estimate on the damage caused by a broken sprinkler head on Saturday in the public meeting room at the Butler County Government Center.

John Campbell, the county director of facilities and operation, said on Wednesday that there was collateral damage when the sprinkler head blew off behind the dais where the commissioners sit for their public meetings each month. During the incident, two to three inches of water flooded the large room.

In addition to a number of acoustic panels on the walls suffering damage from the water pipe and soaked commissioners chairs and carpets, the county lost five machines.

The machines consisted of copiers, printers, computers, a camera and a microfiche reader.

“By the time I got there and got garbage bags on the copier machines, it was too late,” Campbell said.

A floor switch that controls all computers on the first floor was also ruined.

“We're still assessing the damage,” Campbell said.

Two rows of documents in the recorder of deeds' offices below the meeting room were dampened, but Campbell said they can be saved because only the outside edges got wet.

While county workers, who labored in the building all weekend, removed much of the water from the first floor's carpeting with wet/dry vacuums, the carpets all need to be cleaned.

Campbell explained that the emergency happened while he was in the building, so he followed a number of steps.

First, Campbell talked to and directed firefighters to ensure the water was shut off as soon as possible.

Next, he secured the government center and then initiated water removal with the vacuums. Commissioner Kevin Boozel, who was answering emails in his office following the Veterans Day Parade, performed some of the vacuuming on Saturday.

Campbell then went into the basement to the rooms under the meeting room to see how rapidly the water was spreading and removed the deed books that appeared dampened.

The damaged computers were replaced with spares over the weekend.

“We were back to normal operations on Monday,” Campbell said.

The construction crew that hung the frame for the county government building's entrance removed the siding on the pillars, and the pipe leading to the sprinkler froze.

After it thawed the water pressure built up and exploded through the sprinkler head, Campbell said.

He praised the workers in his department for their hard work over the weekend to get the building in shape.

“They did a wonderful job,” he said.