Water line bursts, causes flooding inside Allegheny General Hospital

This browser does not support the video element.

PITTSBURGH — Firefighters and disaster restoration crews were called to Allegheny General Hospital Monday after a water line ruptured.

Jennifer Davis, a spokeswoman for the Allegheny Health Network, said a 3-inch cold water supply line burst, causing water to flow into several elevator shafts and a stairwell.

FREE APPS | NOW | FACEBOOK | TWITTER

Several employees told Channel 11's Joe Holden it was like it was raining in an employee locker room. Others said they saw water coming out of that elevator shaft.

https://twitter.com/WPXIJoeHolden/status/625755223097786368

Pittsburgh Fire Battalion Chief Doug Braskovich said initially locating the leak, which was coming from the mechanical room between the third and fourth floors, was the challenge.

Davis said the leak was found and stopped around 2:40 p.m. Firefighters spent about 90 minutes pumping water.

"We found floor drains. We were able to use sump pumps and divert water into the sewers,” Braskovich said.

https://twitter.com/WPXIJoeHolden/status/625762011620753408

Representatives from ServPro in North Versailles said a large amount of water was released, flooding lower parts of the hospital building.

Davis said the hospital was still able to accept emergency patients and the impact to patients was limited to transport issues.

An update from the hospital around 8 p.m. stated that normal hospital operations had resumed but the cleanup continued.

It's expected to take a few days for things to completely dry out, according to cleaning crews.