Truck backs into building flooding apartment
Published 10:17 am Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader
By Eric Williams
The Orange Leader
An apartment was flooded out Monday evening after a elderly man backed into the building around 6:45 p.m.
Orange Police and Fire Departments received a call that a truck had ran into a building at the James Zay Apartments located in the 600 block of Burton Ave. in Orange.
Upon arrival, first responders found a massive hole in one building and water pouring out of the sprinkler room.
A main water line appeared to have been damaged from the collision.
Thyresia Griffin, rresident of the damaged apartment, said, “I has just gotten in from work and heard a loud boom. I quickly got up to see what had happened.”
That’s when she found her whole back wall of her second bed room knocked in, and the water coming inside.
Griffin was not injured from the crash, but said she was shaken up.
Apartment management and maintenance personnel responded to the scene along with city water workers. The damage of the water lines caused a massive amount of water to fill Griffin’s apartment before the water could be turned off.
Almost every room of the apartment had taken on water, but every one on scene was thankful for no injuries.
The driver of the truck appears to have had some type of medical issue and which may have caused him to back into the building according to witnesses on scene.
The man was assessed by Acadian Ambulance and transported to a local hospital for observation and treatment.
Several other tenants at the complex had to go without water, while crews rushed to repair the broken line.
