Wild aerial footage showed a sinkhole that swallowed a van in Hollywood after a water main burst on Wednesday.
The footage was captured near the intersection of Franklin and Normandie avenues, near the John Sowden House, just before noon. The front half of a Spectrum van was entirely underground, with its back tires anchored at street level.
Spectrum told CBS LA in a statement that a technician was working in the area when the sinkhole opened up, and the individual was uninjured.
“We’re working with local officials and first responders, and we’ll support them however we can as they assess the situation,” a Spectrum spokesperson said.
A neighbor said the Spectrum technician was working in the rear of the truck when the van started to sink.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power told CBS LA that a water main broke in the area around 11:10 a.m., causing a six-foot hole to open in the street.
“The affected main is 8 inches in diameter, with approximately 30 services impacted,” the spokesperson said, adding that the main was installed in 1938.
As repair work continued, LADWP noted that Normandie Avenue would be closed between Franklin and De Mille Drive. They set a preliminary service return time of midnight, and crews were still investigating what caused the main break. During the outage, LADWP handed out water to affected residents.
The Spectrum vehicle had been removed by 4 p.m., LADWP officials said.
Video posted to the Citizen app showed a large stream of water flowing through the area on Wednesday morning.
“The whole ground was shaking, and you could hear the water running under the house,” said a woman named Gayle, who said she’s worried her house could be the next thing to sink into the ground.
Some neighbors told CBS LA that the water issues in the area go back years, with the most recent evidence of a leak coming two weeks ago when water was spotted seeping through the pavement in an alleyway. Crews were in the area then to repair the issue.
LADWP officials say there’s no indication that work is related to the main break.
“There are many contributing factors in why our water mains break, age being one of them,” said LADWP spokesperson Caesar Rubio, who added that the agency proactively replaces approximately 45 miles of pipe every year.
He says that LADWP also has a dedicated leak detection team that works to identify leaks before they happen. So far this year, he says they’ve found nearly 100.
