Wall of water erupts up from Swampscott street

SWAMPSCOTT – Police diverted Tuesday morning commuter traffic around Paradise between Elmwood Road and Burrill Street while town crews repaired a water main break.The pipe ruptured at 3:15 a.m., breaking an abutting natural gas line and forcing families in three residences to evacuate.The break in the 16-inch main created a crater as wide as a car at the end of Spring Court as it enters Paradise, blocking access to four homes on the small dead-end street. Residents of 9, 11 and 15 Paradise were ordered out of their homes while workers fixed the gas leak.Fire Capt. John Quinn said the break shot water 40 to 50 feet into the air. Firefighters and other responding emergency workers also worried the water break might bring down a telephone and power line pole standing six feet from the crater.”Our concern was it would undermine the pole and the lines,” Quinn said.Town officials opened the senior center in the high school as an evacuation center.Assistant Town Engineer Victoria Masone blamed the break on the age of the water main and the late winter cycle of freezing and thawing. The break occurred at the time of day when water use is at its lowest and, as a result, pressure in pipes is at a high point.The Spring Court break is the latest of several to occur with town crews responding to five breaks in two days in the last week of February.