Water damage forces popular Third Ward barre studio to close its doors temporarily

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Jamie Tamboli, owner of The Barre Code fitness studio in the Third Ward, should be preparing to celebrate one year since purchasing the fitness business. Instead, she's hustling to try and find an alternative for her loyal customers after a pipe in an apartment two floors up burst on Christmas Day, causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage to her studio.

"The third floor, the second floor and us, it just came raining down," Tamboli said, estimating the water was running for 14 hours before anyone noticed. "The amount of damage this has caused, it's not like 'pick up a shovel and a towel.' It's horrible."

During a time of the year when people look to start New Year's resolutions, it's a tough time for a fitness studio to not be able to provide services for their clients, old and new.

"My heart broke into pieces, not only because my clients are the most loyal, beautiful souls and I can't service them here, but because it's January and this is the time when everyone's like, 'I want to get into fitness,'" Tamboli said. "That missed opportunity of clients. That really sucks."

Armand Virsnieks is a plumber with Roman Electric Company. He says plumbers are busy this time of year with the fluctuating temperatures causing stress on pipes.

"Most definitely will probably be an increase (in calls), especially with the weather getting warmer now," Virsnieks explained. "The last couple years it's kind of happened where it's gotten really cold and warm and cold, where you run into these odd issues."

While Tamboli is told the temperatures aren't what caused the pipe in her building to break, the end result is the same: a lot of damage to clean up.

"Sadness, anger. It would be one thing if we forgot to run the heat on or left the door open and it was freezing," Tamboli said. "We did everything we could, and this still happened."

Now, Tamboli and her team are providing virtual workouts and pop-up sessions at other Milwaukee locations, keeping their clients working out and their spirits high until the doors at The Barre Code can reopen again.

"Looking forward to coming back bigger and better," Tamboli said. "With all the community banding together and people talking about The Barre Code, maybe people will give us a chance once we're back up."

A GoFundMe has been started to help Jamie reopen her doors. You can find it here.