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Downtown water main break teaches valuable lesson to young renter

Posted at 9:56 PM, Nov 05, 2018
and last updated 2018-11-05 23:56:52-05

SALT LAKE CITY –A water main break caused a massive mess one Salt Lake resident won’t soon forget.

It was a Monday for the books for some residents who call the avenues in Salt Lake City home.

“Pretty spectacular, absolutely,” said Capt. Adam Archuleta with the Salt Lake City Fire Department. “Construction workers in the area called in a [bubbling] leak from underneath the roadway."

But a UTA bus may have turned that ‘bubbling leak’ into more of a geyser by breaking up some of the asphalt in the area.

“It was welling up and running down the street and then bang! A group broke the asphalt and 75-feet of geyser,” said an area resident, Joe Thompson.

However, the resident adjacent to the break wasn’t as impressed.

“You can just see how it went slowly under my door, into my apartment,” Madison Lantzsoh pointed to the mud rings caked to her apartment door and entryway.

When Madison’s phone rang this afternoon, flooding was the last thing she expected.

“I got a call from my landlord,” she said. “I came here and saw the whole muddy, wet mess in my apartment."

Water, mud and a big mess greeted Madison when she got home Monday.

“Water damage,” she said as she flipped through one of many half drenched books on her coffee table.

She was the only resident to feel the wrath of Salt Lake’s very own, Old Faithful.

“It kind of sucks,” Madison shrugged.

Nonetheless, she said it taught her something she will never forget.

“This is my lesson to learn for not getting renter’s insurance,” she said.

Traffic reopened on 3rd Avenue once crews were able to patch the are that ruptured. Crews will be sent back out Tuesday morning to fill the hole and repair the asphalt, which should take about an hour.