Family-of-four are evacuated and a learning centre is destroyed as ‘poo-nami’ sees torrents of sewage pour through the properties
- ‘Hundreds if not thousands’ of litres of sewerage flooded a public housing unit
- A tree root busted a pipe connected to the building in Melbourne at 9am Sunday
- Raw sewerage started to emerge from the family-of-four’s shower drain
- Industrial strength vacuums were required to clean up the flood of excrement
- A first floor unit as well as a ground floor adult learning centre were destroyed
Residents have been evacuated after a block of public housing units was flooded by hundreds of litres of raw sewage, destroying a learning centre.
A tree root busted a pipe connected to the building on Alfred Street in Melbourne at around 9am on Sunday morning, causing raw sewerage to seep from a family-of-four’s shower drain.
The flood of excrement sparked a major clean up by the SES, Victoria Police and the fire brigade, and required industrial strength vacuum, The Age reported.
‘SES assisted us with some wet-dry vacuums and we removed most of it. But then all of a sudden it started coming up again and again and again,’ MFB commander Phil Rogan said.
Water in the bathrooms from the higher up units of the 11-storey block started flowing through the pipes of unit number seven, causing raw sewerage to drain out.
A tree root busted a pipe connected to a public housing unit on Alfred Street in Melbourne (pictured) at around 9am on Sunday morning, causing raw sewerage to seep from a family-of-four’s shower drain
Firefighters immediately activated an emergency alarm system to order residents to stop using their toilets.
‘Stop doing wees and poos please,’ Mr Rogan said through the system.
The flood was so dire it took two hours to get under control, and required the use of a hazmat team to decontaminate the emergency workers’ clothes as they worked.
Finally four hours after the first emergency call, the sewerage stopped running.
Despite being dubbed ‘poo-nami’ by emergency workers, Mr Rogan said the smell wasn’t as potent as people would think.
‘I don’t know a lot about raw sewage, but if it were sitting in a confined area, maybe that’s where it would be pretty horrible. But this was pretty fresh and it was all flowing down.’
The ordeal still isn’t over though, Mr Rogan said the problem has only been half-fixed, and still needs to be cleaned up and repaired by the Department of Human Services.
Unit number seven, on the first level, as well as a ground floor adult learning centre, will be need to be completely gutted.
Mr Rogan said the carpets will need to be taken out to make way for the rectification process to begin, which will take at least a week.
There was no structural damage to the building.
Firefighters immediately activated an emergency alarm system to order residents to stop using their toilets (stock image)