and Arnold York/Publisher
Luck finally ran out for one of the few original small Spanish style homes that survived the disastrous 1993 Malibu fire which devastated the La Costa area hillside neighborhood of Malibu.
A 4-inch water main, existing probably from the late 1930s, ruptured mid-day Saturday sending a continuous stream of water under pressure into the ground for almost 6 hours in the quiet cul-de-sac street of Paseo Serra.
Emergency workers dug frantically for several hours to try to locate and get to valves to shut-off the water, but before they could stop the flow, a substantial portion of the ground alongside and under the corner of a house washed away, endangering the house and its foundation
The water undermined the foundation of the house and sent three palm trees, adjacent to the house, along with the chimney and fireplace crashing into the canyon below. The house was left with a large hole in its side and several large cracks in adjacent walls.
The Malibu Department of Building and Safety red tagged the house, rendering it uninhabitable until an engineering structural analysis can be completed to see if the house can be repaired. However, rumors were circulating that a preliminary survey had indicated the damage was extensive and the house probably could not be saved.
The heavy flow of water was first noticed at about noon by next-door neighbor Melvin Seeman. Seeman has lived in the adjacent house with his wife for more than 40 years.
Seeman immediately went next door to warn his neighbor, Sharon Gibson, who has been renting the house for about a year. She did not hear the water running because she was in the other side of the house, she said. Gibson said she tried calling Water Works 29, the water district that services Malibu, but could only get their weekend voice mail, which she described as nothing but an endless message tree. She said she gave up and called the Fire Department, who immediately rolled on the call. Firemen secured the area and helped Gibson get her furniture out of the house. The water continued to run, and later in the afternoon water department emergency crews showed up to begin digging in front of her house to find the cutoff valve. It took another two hours before workers could stop the flow of water.
After the chimney and fireplace separated from the house, the gas line, which was connected to the fireplace, ruptured and neighbors reported the smell of gas all over the neighborhood. The gas company immediately shut down gas lines to the area.
According to neighbors, after the 1993 fire, about the same time as the large, above-ground, 30-inch waterlines were installed, many of the below-ground, 4-inch water lines in the neighborhood were removed and replaced by larger, newer lines. However, this was not done at the end of the cul-de-sac.
According to Mark Carney, regional water service superintendent for Water Works 29, the cast-iron pipe, probably from the late 1930s, broke in the cul-de-sac for reasons unknown, until they’re able to get a crew under the house to examine the pipe.
This can not be done until the house is stabilized.
Carney explained the water pipe actually serves as a two-way street and the flow through the pipe can actually come from either of two directions, down from Paseo Serra or up from the Pacific Coast Highway area.
In order to stop the flow, they had to stop it at both ends. They dug into the street on the upper end of Paseo Serra and turned off the water, but it was the lower end that was the most difficult.
The cutoff valve below, near PCH, was sitting under a large construction dumpster that had to be moved first and the debris from above had washed down and covered the site.
The water was diverted with a sandbag dam and workers then dug under the debris to get to the valve and shut off the water, which was completed in the late afternoon with the help of the city, Caltrans and the Fire Department.
At the City Council meeting Monday night, City Building Official Vic Peterson told the council it was an older house with shallow footings and the broken main was “positioned as a water jet.”
The house was in “definite jeopardy” and as a result he red-tagged it. He said the adjacent house had been inspected and was not in danger. There were actually a series of four valves that had to be shut off to stop the flow and “it took about three hours for them (WW29) to locate the water main,” said Peterson.