30m fountain of hot water damaged 4 cars in Almaty

A water pipeline accident happened in Almaty. According to witnesses, hot water blew out of the ground. The fountain reached 30 meters, Tengrinews.kz reports. “The water pipeline was damaged during a routine breaking strength test at 11:25 a.m. at the crossing of Marechek and Momyshuly streets. The crach in the water pipe caused a blow-out of hot water onto the surface of the road that created a 3m-diameter hole in the ground,” the message of Almatinskiye Teplovye Seti (Almaty Heating Systems) states. As per the initial information, four cars were damaged by this accident. According to witnesses, the cars were thrown off by the mud flow, but the passengers were not injured. “My car was at the spot of blow-out. The road literally dropped down and the car was hanging above the ditch. When my wife and I got out of the car, we saw pieces of ther road surface scattered everywhere. My grandson is scared, but everyone is safe. The window is broken though,” the owner of Honda-Odyssey said. As it turned out later, there were people injured in the accident. They had thermal burns. They were taken to one of the city hospitals. The blow-out damaged even the cars parked 30-40 meters from the accident site. Residents of the surrounding area are not going to experience hot water shutoffs. Repair works will be held to fully eliminate the damage, press-secretary of Almatinskiye Teplovye Seti Dina Ospanova said. Emergency service is working at the accident site. Photos have been submitted by photo-journalist of VOX POPULI. By Zhuldyz Seisenbekova