Severe flooding hit a portion of the Mission Valley area Monday morning after a car slammed into a fire hydrant, officials said.
The incident began around 7:15 a.m. after a maintenance vehicle ran over a fire hydrant in the 4000-block of Camino Del Rio South, releasing thousands of gallons of water.
Officials say water began spewing into the streets, causing flooding around some buildings, including one that houses offices belonging to Central Texas College.
Workers at that office building found themselves caught in the flooding, as water gushed down the hill and right into their building.
“I looked out my window and saw the water flowing down,” one office worker told NBC 7.
When emergency crews arrived, they found water nearly four-feet deep pooling outside the main doors of the building. Crews quickly worked to clear the water and were able to prevent structural damage to the building.
Still, it was quite a mess to clean up.
Arthur Minton said he had just gotten to work at Central Texas College when it happened.
“Water was everywhere. It started flowing in the lobby first, then on the sidewalks. A couple of my co-workers started moving their cars and everything,” explained Minton.
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“When the water was on the first floor it was finding every open space it could to get out. It was coming down through all the seams in the floor, going down into the parking structure,” said Capt. Kevin Easley of the San Diego Fire Department. “It overwhelmed all of the drains in the building.”
Minton then went to work trying to save equipment at the office building.
“Pretty much all of our office spaces and our office is flooded out. So, we had to pick up all the computers and stuff and we were trying to keep all of the electrical stuff from getting wet,” he said.
With soaked feet, Minton said he was hoping to get the rest of the day off work.
However, according to Capt. Easley, that may not be the case since the building should be back to normal shortly.
“This building should be back to full-service today, later this afternoon at the earliest, or tomorrow morning at the latest,” said Capt. Easley.
Once fire crews finished up their part of the clean-up process, a commercial company was called in to finish the job.
Given how much electrical and office equipment was housed on the first floor, officials say it’s fortunate that no one was injured.
