Crews Work To Repair Major Water Main Break In North Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Crews were on the scene of a major water main break in North Philadelphia on Friday afternoon.
Officials say that the incident took place at the intersection of Fox Street and Abottsford Avenue.
The break occurred on a 48 inch water main, according to crews. They add that this is the third time in less than two years that there has been at break at this location. Six million gallons of water gushed out of the 100-plus year old water main in Baker Center.
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Crews were on the scene to assess the situation. Officials were very upset to see this happen in the same location as were patrons of the businesses and residents in the area.
The fire department was on scene, assisting people to get from the stores to their cars. Eyewitness News was on the scene and spotted several vehicles that appeared to be destroyed as a result.
"We ended up making about 60 rescues," said Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel.
Officials were able to shut down the water water main break shortly before 5:00 p.m., at which point the water began to recede.
The water department now has a massive problem on their hands, considering that this happened in January, 2014 and June 2015.
"I hope it's not ruined. I pray it's not," said Cassandra Robinson whose car was one of the ones in the flooded parking lot. "Water's just seconds from going inside my car."
The water department told Eyewitness News that they are trying to figure out what to do about this recurring problem, and not simply put a band-aid on it to make sure that this does not happen again.
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Water Department Commissioner Debra McCarty told Eyewitness News there is a plan to completely replace the main. "We've increased our capital funding from about 20 to 40 miles a main a year," she explained.
On Friday night, the main was turned off as clean-up began. McCarty said replacing the main won't be easy, or cheap, but she hoppes to do it as soon as possible.
