Aging Water Pipe Bursts in Hillcrest, Damaging Stores and Buckling Street

A 78-year-old water pipe in Hillcrest burst Thursday, buckling a main thoroughfare, flooding a comic book store and other businesses and forcing a traffic alert, city officials said.

City workers were dispatched to University Avenue at Park Boulevard after the Water Utilities Department began getting reports about 2:45 a.m. that the street was buckling, department spokesman Kurt Kidman said. After digging down to the pipe, workers discovered an 8- to 10-foot-long split in the 30-inch-diameter cast iron main.

No homes were affected, but single-story businesses on University between Normal and Park streets were awash, Kidman said.

Water to the pipe was shut off about 6 a.m, and a backup system took over, he said. Two water wagons were also dispatched to serve businesses in the area.

In contrast to an incident in September in which a 7-foot-wide county pipe burst and its replacement had to be specially ordered from Los Angeles, the city has a 30-inch pipe in stock that will be installed Friday, Kidman said. Crews will work through the weekend to reopen the damaged portion of University.

“This was the first problem we’ve had with the pipe, but it’s been in the ground since 1912,” Kidman said. “It just got old and burst.”

Michael Wyatt, store manager at Comic Kingdom Graphic Fantasy Shop, said a nearby florist, bookstore and other businesses were affected, but his store seemed to have been hit hardest because much of the merchandise was on the floor. The store is in the 1600 block of University.

“I’m disgusted,” he said. About 5,000 comic books, some worth $150 each, signed artist’s prints and collectible books from the 1940s were damaged by the water, he said. “It hurts bad.”

“It’s like collecting stamps,” Wyatt said. “Once a comic book is damaged, nobody wants to look at it.”

The 15-year-old store is known for back-issue comics, he said. Owner Jack Dickens said the store will file a claim with the city to recoup some of its losses. He hadn’t had a chance to assess the damage, but said thousands of comics were ruined.

“We deal in paper collectibles,” he said, “and water is about as bad as you can get.”