The sun., 1906-01-07
BLASTING BLAMED FOR FLOOD.
BIG PIECE W4S KNOCkED or OF
,2G.TNCH MAIN.
spot Only 40 Feet From Lot Where There
Has Been Much Blasting Estimates
or Damage From 500 900 to S2OO..
HpO-Hard Work Locating Breaks

The leak that flooded Fifth avenue on
Friday night was discovered at $50 last
evening. IL j. in a R-nch main close by
a joint just south of Thirtyfourh street.
4 piece about feet long had been
broken out of the cast iron pipe and forced
out into the surrounding gravel-mud 1t IL
now. The pipe is one Of the old-fashioned
ones with od-fashioned connecting joints.
Though the matter Is not yet certain,
the Water Department experts are of opin-
ion that the ritt was due 10 the jar of blasts
on lot 80 feet away.
During the day the theory was advanced
that the main which burst was lying upon
a rock "a condition which the inspectors
should have forbidden, and that the nearby
blasting Jared the rock and cracked the
brittle pipe az would the blow Of hammer.
E-tir ates of the total damage from the
food varied yesterday all the way from
500 900 to s?OO.O00. Heaviest of the suffer
ers are Chester Billings & Son, whose build
ing is but five months old, and Won Len
gerke & Ditmold. who have the other half
of the ground floor and cellar. Alfred Bro
gan. mana ger for the Riiingse-, said yes
tcrday.
1T is the most outrageou. piece of hus-
ness ] ever heard of. Some one should
have shut the water of and no, let it flow
eight or nine hours, a. it did. The food
began at 7O5 o'clock =. NJ. and il was not
in the cellar till $50 o'clock, yet II was not
shut on I'LL t3o O'Clock or later"
Representatives of the Billings concern
said that the building and Its contents sus-
tained $4,000 damage. In the Waldorf
Astoria $4,000 cigars We're damaged. At
kirkpatricks water entered the cellar but
did not reach the paintings stored there.
Reed 4 Barton suffered some cellar damage
not yet determined
The damage to the water pipes them
selves and the cost of restoring the pave
ment on Fifth avenue could not be esti
mated Yesterday City officials said they
would be very heavy. The emergency
gang was digging all the rest of Friday
night and all Yesterday to find $he leak.
Deputy Commissioner Frank J. Good
win was on the scene in the afternoon, and
explained the delay in shutting off the
water. He said
There are six mains in Fifth avenue.
When the police notified the water station
for this section--i37 West Thirty-seventh
street-and later two others. the men at
once set about closing the water gates.
"One is al Twenty-ninth street; one is at
forty-seCond street, and one Is at the
Cathedral. II happened that the last one
was the one that needed to be closed. SO
the food got for time beyond their con-
troll
There are emergency stations OF the
Water Supply Department in different
sections Of the borough But there is no
Patrol Dependence is pla ced on the police
and the Fire Department to notify the
emergency stations, At each Of these
there are sectional maps. ,Neverth heless,
Information from men familiar with the
Water Supply Department il to the effect
that reliance is largely placed by the eIner-
gency stations, not on the maps, but upon
the personal knowledge Of locations of
mains possessed by the foremen and other
members Of the repair gangs, or nv Chief
Engineer Birdsall or his assistants.
When the subway was flooded last June
by the bursting of a water main at Fortieth
street and Park avenl'e something was said
by the Mayor to Commissioner Oakley
about hay ing charts Of the water main sys-
TEN Of the city, with the location of the
gates, put in the police stations and fire.
houses. As n result there was sent to each
frehouse a list of the names and addresses
Of the torcmen of the "shutof gangs" in
its district. The police sta tions got nothing
at all. The iiremen -ay that when a main
bursts they call up the nearest gang fore
man and then sit down to wait same as
before.