The Tamaqua Elementary School avoided major damage thanks to good timing and a collective effort.

A burst pipe was discovered early Saturday morning by the routine weekend security at the elementary school.

Tamaqua Superintendent Ray Kinder said the leaking through the ceiling was believed to be coming down for about seven hours.

“There was a leak in the ceiling in the hallway, somewhat close to the far end of the gymnasium,” Kinder said at Tuesday night’s school board meeting. “It came down in all directions. It got into the classrooms. We were very fortunate to find out it had probably only been going for about seven hours instead of Monday morning, which would have been catastrophic.”

Service Pro did the restoration work, and the Tamaqua custodial staff also showed up to pitch in immediately.

“I can’t thank our custodial staff enough,” Kinder said. “At the drop of a hat, they were there working, probably a dozen strong. We got in touch with the company, they immediately came. Because we were able to get at it so quickly, we avoided all of those environmental things that could have went wrong. There has not been a lot of loss, we were able to dry everything out.”

Kinder said there was only one room on Monday that the school couldn’t use, which was back in working condition by Tuesday.

“All of our readings indicate that they’re at or below typical level. There was great cooperation by our staff, there were a lot of people in there early willing to help, and it’s much appreciated.”