MEDINA — A flood Saturday night caused by the sprinkler system in the new Medina Library left books and fixtures drenched.

Only a week away from its grand reopening, the library at 210 S. Broadway, which was part of the Medina County District Library’s major construction and renovation project, has yet another hurdle to overcome.

The city fire department responded to the sprinkler system going off around 7:30 p.m. and found the adult fiction section on the second floor, which was the reference department in the library’s original building, flooded with 4 inches of water, Fire Chief Bob Painter said.

He said he believes part of the sprinkler system was frozen and with the temperature rise over the weekend, any water that may not have fully drained from the sprinklers thawed, started flowing and triggered the system.

Painter said two sprinkler heads in the attic were found flowing when firefighters arrived.

“We had about 15 firemen up there for several hours just trying to save as many books as they could,” he said. “We tried to vacuum up what we could … tarped all the bookshelves.”

Tina Sabol, the district’s community relations officer, said 12 library staff members were there Saturday night as well, sorting through the books affected to see which ones could be salvaged.

Sabol said those that could be recovered were packed onto a trailer from Carney-McNicholas Inc., a moving company from Lorain, to be freeze-dried.

“Our maintenance supervisor said ‘kudos’ to the fire department for getting there as quick as they could,” Sabol said. “He couldn’t stop praising them.”

Carol Kowell, the district’s new director, said this was quite a way to start her first week on the job.

On Friday, she said, staff from various library branches in the county brought their families to the new building to celebrate its near completion, and less than 24 hours later, she found it hard to believe how the situation changed.

“As we watched the drenched insulation fall from the ceiling to the floor, our hearts dropped,” she said, adding everyone pulled together and moods were elevated as they all realized it wasn’t as bad as it looked at first.

“We all pitched in together and worked until the wee hours of the night,” Kowell said. “The staff did a really good job turning what could have been a really bad situation into something that will be OK. When something bad happens and everybody just pulls together, your mood brightens.”

Kowell said she doesn’t know what this will mean for the grand reopening, but she will know more with each day and everyone is staying optimistic.

Sabol said the library board is meeting with the city this morning to determine what the library’s next steps will be.