A broken water main flooded several homes in Castro Valley (CA) Friday and created a sinkhole that partially swallowed a fire truck, reports Contra Costa Times.
The East Bay Municipal Utilities District water main broke shortly before 7 p.m. in the vicinity of Seven Hills Road and Santa Maria Avenue, sending rivers of water past front yards and into homes as neighbors scrambled to save their possessions.
An Alameda County Fire Department truck dispatched to help dig trenches to channel the waters away became a casualty when the street beneath it collapsed, swallowing one wheel of the 40,000-pound vehicle in a 10-by-15-foot sinkhole that continued to foil salvage attempts late Friday, the California Highway Patrol said.
East Bay MUD workers were able to shut off the water about 9:40 p.m., spokeswoman Andrea Pook said, but several homes on Santa Maria Avenue had been flooded. KTVU-2 reported some neighbors saying they had received as much as 3 feet of water.
Heavy towing equipment was summoned to the scene, according to the CHP’s traffic incident information website.
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