3:02 PM: A vehicle traveling down the crooked block of San Francisco’s Lombard Street struck a fire hydrant, sending water flooding down the street and into nearby homes, authorities and eyewitnesses said.
The car struck a hydrant at 12:23 p.m. about halfway down the 1000 block of Lombard Street, the block famous for its eight steep, downhill turns, fire department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said.
The crash sent water shooting out of the hydrant about 10 feet in the air. The water flowed around the street’s curves and into the garages of some nearby homes, according to Suhayb Ahmed, a tourist who took a video of the flooding.
Ahmed, a Des Moines, Ia. resident and Drake University Law School student who was in the Bay Area for a conference, said he was sightseeing in the city and had come to the iconic part of Lombard Street to drive down it before discovering it was shut down.
“I parked to see what was going on and saw water gushing out of the ground, so I took a few pictures and a video,” he said.
Firefighters were able to stop the flow of water by about 1:05 p.m., Talmadge said. The department used a smaller fire truck specially designed for the crooked street to respond to the incident, she said.
Crews from the city’s Public Utilities Commission also responded to the accident, Talmadge said.
Lombard Street remained closed in the area as of 2:30 p.m., police Sgt. Mike Andraychak said.
1:32 PM: A vehicle traveling down the crooked block of San Francisco’s Lombard Street struck a fire hydrant this afternoon, causing water to flood into some nearby homes, a fire department spokeswoman said.
The vehicle struck a hydrant at 12:23 p.m. about halfway down the 1000 block of Lombard Street, the block famous for its eight steep, downhill turns, fire spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said.
The crash sent water shooting out of the hydrant and into some homes along the street, according to Talmadge. She did not know how many homes were affected.
Firefighters responded with the fire engine specifically designed to navigate that block and turned off the water by 1:05 p.m., Talmadge said.
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
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