Workers rescued from flooding room

Two Spokane Water Department employees were rescued Friday morning from a flooded basement when a valve they were working on at a South Hill water station burst, at one point forcing them to breathe and communicate through a crack in the ceiling.

Firefighters from a station just a few blocks north of the pump station at Ray Street and 23rd Court noticed large amounts of water running down the Ray Street hill and headed up to the station to investigate, said Assistant Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer.

When the firefighters arrived, they found five Water Department employees frantically trying to rescue their two co-workers trapped in the rising water.

The employees used a backhoe to break down two outside doors to drain water out of the building. That lowered the water level and also reduced pressure against the basement door, allowing firefighters to break it down and reach the trapped men.

Seven men were at the Lincoln Heights Reservoir working on a maintenance project about 9 a.m. when the accident occurred.

When the valve on an 18-inch water pipe burst, the two men in the basement became trapped as the rising water forced the door shut. Water rose to within 6 inches of the ceiling, Schaeffer said.

The men, one in his 40s and the other in his 50s, were taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center for treatment because of the extremely cold water.

“They’re doing very well, physically,” Schaeffer said. “They’re pretty shaken up.”

Water service in the Lincoln Heights area has not been affected, said City Water Superintendent Frank Triplett, who raced to the scene to help his employees.

“The employees are the most valuable part of the Water Department,” he said.

That pump station serves areas south of it, pumping water up the hill from storage tanks on site. It was built in the 1920s, Triplett said.

“We were in the middle of remodeling it,” he said.

That’s the reason a backhoe was on site. Crews had been using it for excavation. Without it, rescuing the two trapped men would have been much more difficult.

After the rescue, the other workers were drenched and emotional, Schaeffer said.

“The cold water and the adrenaline had them shaking,” he said.