Downtown Edmonton water main break floods businesses: ‘It’s madness’ – Edmonton

A number of businesses near downtown Edmonton suffered major damage following an overnight water main break Thursday.

It happened shortly after midnight on 106 Avenue between 105 and 106 streets, just north of MacEwan University.

The water main break caused damage to the street, as well as several nearby businesses, including African Safari Restaurant and Maca Halal Meat & Wholesale.

READ MORE: Water main break damages south Edmonton businesses

Salman Warsame’s father owns the businesses affected and received a call about the water main break.

“Basically what happened was, the main water line in the street broke — exploded!” Warsame explained while standing outside the water-logged businesses.

He said water shot into the air and onto the roof of the building.

“Then the whole building just got flooded.”

He arrived to see emergency crews trying to deal with the mess.

“It was madness! There was EPCOR, firefighters, there were police earlier. Water’s gushing everywhere and these guys are running around,” he said, gesturing to EPCOR employees.

Inside the building, water poured through the ceiling, pooling on the floor and damaging equipment. Inside the meat shop, the dropped ceiling also collapsed.

“Water was going for like, a good hour. And it was not like, a little bit of water — this was like, gallons on gallons just flowing.”

The Central McDougall area is in the midst of $1.2 million neighbourhood renewal construction, which according to the city’s website began in May and is expected to continue until summer of 2021. The work includes replacing sidewalks, curbs, roads and street lights.

Warsame said there has been construction in the area for several months, to the frustration of business owners, and the water main break is another headache.

“It’s a long time and they do it every damn year and it affects business,” he said, adding they have been in operation for about 14 years. “Now look at it — it’s flooded! It’s madness.”

Warsame’s father said they will be in touch with their insurance provider to figure out where to go from here.

WATCH: Raw video of the water main break shows water shooting several stories in the air 

Another family business in the building — A & S Laundromat — was equally as affected by the flooding.

Amritpal Khinda, owner of A & S Laundromat, discovered just how bad the damage was when he arrived at his shop at around 7 a.m. Thursday. He arrived at the shop to find disintegrated ceiling tiles on the floor and water everywhere.

“My machines and all supplies — you can see roof, everything is damaged.”

Just talked to owner of this biz. He’s devastated. Epcor shut off water at 3am. Water gushed in here for hours. @GlobalEdmonton #yeg pic.twitter.com/0m3CZFETcu

— kendra slugoski (@kendraslugoski) September 5, 2019

Khinda said he slept through multiple calls throughout the early morning and when he checked his security footage when he woke up around 5 a.m., he saw the devastation and all the water.

“It came from the roof,” said Khinda. “Roof and under the doors.”

Khinda said he had already been dealt a blow to his business this summer, after the street in front of his shop was closed off for more road work. He said last year was the same — after crews shut down 106 Avenue to put in a gas line.

“Our people, nobody can park over here,” he said.

It’s not yet known if the washers and dryers were damaged by the flood.

Edmonton Fire Rescue said crews were called around 12:20 a.m. to the water main break.

Five crews of approximately 20 firefighters arrived on scene within three minutes. The crews worked with EPCOR to shut the water off, the city said, and firefighters left the scene about an hour later.

EPCOR said the water was fully turned off around 3 a.m. and no one in the area is without water as a result of the burst pipe. The company said crews were on site Thursday morning to assess the damage and begin repairs, but it’s not yet known what caused the water main to rupture.

Traffic won’t be impacted, EPCOR said, because the road was already closed for restoration construction.

EPCOR crews were also dealing with a large power outage hours earlier, which left much of northeast Edmonton in the dark Wednesday night. The power was restored around 11:30 p.m.

READ MORE: EPCOR responds to large power outage in northeast Edmonton Wednesday night