A Cork family was forced to evacuate their family home following a large water leak that collapsed the driveway creating a large sinkhole that partly swallowed their car.
As the Irish Examiner reports, worryingly as well as the hole in McGrath Park in Blackrock, father of three Gary O’Donovan has also spotted cracks in his home.
Inspectors from Irish Water and the emergency services were on site early Sunday morning.
Mr O’Donovan said: “It’s horrific. We are out of the house, there are structural cracks in it. It looks like the water was flowing under the house all night.”
He first spotted leaking water on Saturday evening. “I saw a spring of water started coming down the drive, and I found a crack between the footpath and where my drive starts, it (water) was bubbling up,” he said.
He immediately called Irish Water. “They came out and had a look,” he added.
Crews are currently in attendance at a burst water main in McGrath Park, Mahon. ESB Networks, Bord Gáis Energy, Irish Water Uisce Éireann and a building inspector are all at scene.
Expect water outage in the area. #CorkAlerts pic.twitter.com/GJaP3KaFIM— Cork City Fire Brigade (@CorkCityFire) June 20, 2021
Extent of the damage
“They didn’t seem too concerned, they were going to get someone to come and take a look at it Monday or Tuesday to pinpoint where they might be a leak.”
It was the next morning when the full extent of the damage started to become clear.
“Half-past six when I woke up, I looked out and saw the car in a hole. It collapsed under the car, the car is sitting on the sill of it now,” he said.
When he looked at their Mahon home, he noticed changes to the exterior, and then to the interior walls.
I noticed new cracks on the inside of the house, and some pre-existing cracks have widened up significantly, on the inside and the outside of the house.
Mr O’Donovan, a mechanical engineer with Boston Scientific, woke his wife and three children.
They left the house but were unable to close the front door after them as the frames and door were warped by the water.
He rang Irish Water again and contacted Cork Fire Brigade.
