Tuesday, January 02, 2018 11:31PM

The bitter cold that is locked into the Tri-State has led to all kinds of issues, from mass transit problems to buildings with no heat.

But another major problem that is popping up, and will likely continue to get worse as the cold continues, is frozen pipes, which means plumbers are some of the busiest people during this deep freeze.

Eyewitness News caught up with plumbers Kevin Guyon and Luis Sanchez at Martina Restaurant on East 11th Street. On Tuesday morning, a worker found water cascading through the ceiling in the basement, all coming from the restaurant bathroom.

“Never thought it would have been the sprinkler system,” executive chef Nick Anderer said. “But sure enough after we explored everything up in there, the sprinkler head had come down and it was just gushing right out from an open sprinkler head.”

There is a big and noticeable difference between the broken sprinkler head in the restaurant basement and a brand new one, and that is the new sprinkler head’s inclusion of a heat sensor. Guyon, who works for the Allstate Sprinkler Corporation, says a build up of ice is what caused the sprinkler to malfunction and send water gushing out.

“It expands the sprinkler head and it diffuses,” Guyon said. “And then once the temperature rises again, the water starts to come out.”

“It’s like a tape. Wrap it around. It’s like a wire,” Sanchez said. “You wrap it around the pipe so it can keep it warm.”

“Make sure you have heat, plenty of heat,” Guyon added.

All in all, a sprinkler head with a heating coil is a simple solution to help prevent a major nightmare during the cold months ahead.

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