Major sewage spill floods first floor of vacant 10th Street church building
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Published: August 20, 2008
Santa Paula Fire personnel responded Sunday evening to a major sewage spill that flooded the entire first floor of an area church building and flowed outside of the structure into the street, according to a SPFD spokesman.
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula Times
Santa Paula Fire personnel responded Sunday evening to a major sewage spill that flooded the entire first floor of an area church building and flowed outside of the structure into the street, according to a SPFD spokesman. Assistant Chief Kevin Fildes said the incident was reported August 17 at 7:22 p.m. “It was the church building located on the east side of 10th Street at Railroad Avenue,” located at 217 N. 10th St., that is vacant and for sale.
Santa Paula Fire Engine 81 responded to the scene, where they met the property owner who “reported sewer water flowing from the building’s ground floor toilets” in such volume that the overflow “flooded the entire building and was running” outside the structure. “It was the sewage coming down Ojai Road... the owner of the building must have gotten a call or something” alerting him to the problem.
Fildes said the estimated flow was “25 to 50 gallons per minute.... It was found that one of the main sewer lines in the street had plugged up and all the water from the Ojai Road neighborhoods basically was coming through the ground floor toilets of the church.”
Personnel from the Public Works Department as well as the operator of the city’s wastewater treatment plant also responded to the scene, and Fildes said they were able to clear the line stop the flowing of sewage water. Ventura County Environmental Health was also notified, and is working with city personnel on the cleanup.
Fildes said that SPFD personnel were released from the scene “after approximately 45 minutes.... At that point Public Works was handling the incident.”
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