Chutian Metropolis Daily News (Reporters Xiang Qingun, Long Ying, Li Hui, Correspondent Xie Minghui) - At around 3 a.m. yesterday morning, a 1.2-meter-diameter main water supply pipe under the road in front of Huashun Auto Repair at Changhong Bridge in Wuchang District suddenly burst. The rushing tap water flooded the lower-lying auto repair shop, forcing three employees to hastily climb up a camphor tree to escape. They were later rescued by firefighters.
Yesterday morning, when reporters arrived at the scene, repair personnel were urgently fixing the pipeline. The road surface where the pipe burst had split open with a fissure over one meter deep.
The wall of the auto repair shop opposite the incident location showed traces of water immersion more than one meter high. Within the yard, office desks and chairs from two auto repair shops were overturned on the ground, leaving the indoor areas in complete disarray.
Mr. Hou, who was the first to discover the flooding, said that at around 3:30 a.m. that day, he was awakened from his sleep by a deafening noise, only to find water flowing down the road like a river. He quickly shouted to wake up his sleeping colleagues in the courtyard. More than ten young men rushed out barefoot into the water towards higher ground.
Two elderly gentlemen in their sixties and a woman, seeing the surging floodwaters, quickly climbed nearby large camphor trees to escape. Employees of the auto repair shop immediately called 119 for help. Multiple firefighters soon arrived at the scene, carrying the three individuals to safety. Another 59-year-old man trapped inside the house was sitting on a bedside cabinet but was also safely transferred to a secure location by the firefighters.
After the incident, Wuhan Waterworks Group swiftly organized more than 40 people to carry out emergency repairs. The accident caused the nearby booster station to stop transferring water supplies, resulting in water outages for about 800 households nearby. Additionally, water pressure dropped in areas such as Shailu Road, Shipai Ridge, Meiyuan Residential Area, Zhongnan Road, and Zhongbei Road.
According to information obtained, this pipe was laid in 1991, and the preliminary judgment is that the pipe burst due to aging and temperature changes. Currently, repair personnel are replacing the main pipe, and it is expected that water supply will be fully restored by 6 a.m. on the 23rd.