FIREFIGHTERS tackled a water main which burst on Thursday in Witney, flooding large parts of a housing estate.

Crews worked with Thames Water to re-establish water supplies on Witney’s Madley Park and handed out bottled water to residents, whose water supply was cut off.

Houses across the estate were affected by the water when the 60cm diameter pipe started leaking at 4pm on Thursday.

Witney Gazette:

Entire streets were flooded by the burst 60cm pipe. Picture: Madley Park Residents Association

Entire streets were also flooded by the burst pipe. 

Residents started building makeshift barriers around front doors and helping each other sweep the tide away from their homes.

Firefighters from Witney, Bampton, Charlbury and Eynsham rushed to the scene and quickly closed the A4095.

Crews deployed pumps and hoses to divert the water away from homes and also away from Thames Water engineers who were trying to fix the leak.

Witney Gazette:

Picture: Madley Park Residents Association

Station manager Chris Barber said: “This was a large water main that burst causing water to flow into Madley Park from a number of directions.

“As Thames Water worked hard to isolate the leak, fire crews were deployed to various locations to divert the flow and reduce the risk to properties on the estate.

“There was a fantastic effort from residents as they rallied round and supported their neighbours to prevent water from entering homes and as a result only a few properties were affected inside.”

This afternoon Thames Water said it was increasing pressure to the water mains and that water supplies would be returning to normal.