News: 19990928-61 Fire and Flood

From MawsonLakes.Org

Posted by PaulS on Thursday, 30 September 1999
from the un-natural-disasters dept.

[edit] Fire and Flood

Tim Dixon sent in the following:

For your community news, one you may have missed and I forgot to tell you!

Last week (w/e 24/9) there was a FIRE and a FLOOD in Mawson Lakes.

As told to me by my wife and a contractor who was there at the time. Just across the ford on the left, Delfin are preparing a new release of land. There are also some houses nearing completion at the edge of the new area, near the (now closed) old Cross Keys Road extension.. Outside one of these houses, an electrical contractor was heat shrinking some cables. Due to the close proximity of all the other services, apparently another pipe was accidentally damaged! The gas main broke and the gas detonated causing a rather spectacular fire in the hole. The resultant heat melted a plastic cable pit and eventually the plastic water main! The water flooded the hole but the fire kept burning. The water then flowed down a conduit and started gradually flooding nearby cable pits. It flowed up out of the pits onto adjacent streets. What followed was a spirited struggle by various people to limit this flow and the potential destruction it could cause. The water and gas were shut down and the flooding halted but it took some time for the gas fire to burn out. All in all, a fairly dramatic afternoon for all concerned!!! Damage was actually quite minimal and on inspection the next day all had been virtually restored to normal however a new cable pit and some phone wires were still needed!!

Tim Dixon