Tempe City Hall and Gilbert school lose heat

TEMPE, AZ - Our Valley freeze made for a cold couple of days for employees at Tempe City Hall.

About five days ago they noticed something wasn't quite right with the heating system.

It took several days to pinpoint the problem, but workers found a busted pipe in a vault 15 feet underground.

They worked around the clock to fix it, but employees worked in 50 degree temperatures for two days.

Some employees got a little creative in the cold.

One man started a digital yule log fire on his computer monitor, hoping it might heat the place or at least their spirits.

Space heaters worked better and people wore parkas and gloves and wrapped themselves in blankets.

Workers turned the heat back on Wednesday and it took much of the morning to heat back into the 60's.

Meanwhile, a school in Gilbert had to deal with similar problems.

A part went out on a heating unit at Chaparral Elementary School on Monday and made it mighty chilly in several rooms.

Once workers fixed that, another unit quit on Tuesday.

In all, about five classrooms were cooled into the 50s and 50 kids did some shuffling around to other classrooms.

School officials said they also used space heaters to keep kids warm.

School officials said they did not alert parents because only a small number of kids were affected and they took care of the problem as quickly as they could.