A 16-inch water main on Hillside Drive broke and began spurting 5 million gallons of water around 3:30 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 17, causing serious damage to several of the 12 houses that it reached along the road, as well as on Lookout Drive and Soledad Avenue.
A crew from the San Diego Water Department was at the scene around 5:30 a.m. after receiving a call from San Diego Police Department, and an engine from Fire Station No. 9 arrived on the scene shortly before 8 a.m., according to Maurice Luque, spokesman for the city’s Fire and Rescue Department.
“A torrent of water was flowing down Hillside Drive and at least a foot of water was just roaring down the street into people’s yards, into their driveways and under their garage doors,” Luque said.
It took water department officials four hours to locate and turn off the correct water main valve that was leaking, according to Luque. Firefighters evacuated an unknown number of people from homes in the area. Some residents were not home during the time of the incident, he said.
One home on Hillside Drive experienced serious damage and has been yellow-tagged by water department officials, which means the homeowners may not spend the night there until further notice because of safety issues, Luque said.
“The home was right next to the site,” said Tedi Jackson, spokeswoman for the city’s water department. “The city is putting them up at a nice hotel while we work to get this cleaned up. They were very good during the whole break and had a good attitude.”
The city is also trying to clean up the yards of ten residents whose front yards and garages were flooded, and a home with a basement that was seriously damaged, Jackson said.
Water was shut off for 20 residents throughout the day Sunday and was restored around 11:30 p.m. that night. City staff provided water bottles and wagons to people in homes in that area, Jackson said.