Water shooting from the ruptured main on Saturday morning.

19 August 2006

A burst water main caused flooding in part of Wendover on Saturday morning.

Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Sevice's Control Room received a call at 9.20am to say a water main had ruptured in Mill Mead, off Dobbins Lane. They notified Thames Water in accordance with BFRS policy.

Just over an hour later they received a second call. An officer, Geoff Bottle, attended and immediately requested a crew. An appliance from Aylesbury was sent and firefighters set about diverting the water away from people's homes.

Thames Valley Police and a Buckinghamshire County Council highways officer were also present.

Three homes were directly affected by the water, and a further 20 were inconvenienced.

At its peak, the geyser was saturating roofs and getting into properties under the eaves.

A cordon was set up and a number of people were evacuated, but others stayed in their homes because of the public safety risk posed by flying debris, some of it the size of half bricks, which was shooting out of the 10-inch main.

Sandbags arrived at about 11.30am, and a representative from Thames Water arrived at about 11.50am to stem the flow.