Water-main break causes street closures in Burbank

[UPDATE: 6/18, 1:05 p.m.] A water-main break in the parking lot of the fire department’s training facility on Ontario Street caused a sinkhole, resulting in road closures in the area on Ontario Street and Fairview Street between Victory Boulevard and Pacific Avenue.

The break, which was reported at 5:15 p.m., caused water to leak inside the Burbank Fire Department Training Center and on to Ontario Street, said Lt. Matthew Ferguson with the Burbank Police Department.

Ferguson said the size of the sinkhole was about a 20 feet in diameter, and about three to four feet deep -- about four cars wide.

No cars were in the parking lot at the time, he said.

In addition to the street closures in the residential area, access to Ralph Foy Park from the Ontario Street side was affected, but was still be accessible on Victory Boulevard, Ferguson said.

The water flow was controlled by about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night, according to Bill Mace, assistant general manger for water systems with Burbank Water and Power.

By then, fire department crews had closed off the main valve, and were working to close smaller valves to stop the water flow, said Burbank Fire Capt. Peter Hendrickson.

The cause of the water-main break was a broken fitting -- a device used to change the direction of a pipe, Mace said.

“It’s not clear why that hapepned, but it was 50 years old,” he said.

An estimate on damage or how many gallons of water flowed was not available, Mace said.

-- Sameea Kamal, sameea.kamal@latimes.com

Follow on Twitter: @SameeaKamal.

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