A holding cell in the Flathead County Detention Center will stay closed through the weekend after sustaining water damage when a sprinkler problem caused flooding Wednesday night in the Flathead County Justice Center.

Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said water that cascaded down into the jail during the sprinkler flood Wednesday night damaged ceiling tiles and posed the potential for mold in the minimum security, dormitory-style housing unit.

The unit probably will remain closed through the weekend while the cell is cleaned and dried out. That loss of space means that no new misdemeanor offenders will be incarcerated.

“It’s not a crisis, we’re doing it the same as if we reached our misdemeanor cap,” Curry said.

“It certainly hasn’t caused us to let anybody out, just required a little shuffling around and rehousing of people. And we’ll still take anybody who commits DUIs, partner or family member assaults, violent crimes, like we always do.”

The cell holds eight inmates.

Curry explained that cell closures are nothing new for the facility — repairs regularly call for such an action.

“It happens for short periods of time routinely, but primarily for damage inflicted by the occupants, be that flooding or whatever damage is done internally to the cell,” Curry said.

He added that it was lucky that the flooding affected the cell that it did.

“It’s a little different than most of the jail cells in that it can actually sustain some water damage,” Curry said.

The flooding also caused the closure of Justice Court Thursday. The court reopened Friday.