Fire pumper truck caves in at VBMC lot

HARLINGEN — Valley Baptist Medical Center officials are blaming a leaky underground water pipe for opening a sinkhole that sunk a fire truck Monday.

The pumper fire truck sank into the ground on Benwood Street near the hospital’s emergency department at about 1 p.m.

The fire truck was responding to a routine fire drill at the hospital, Frank Castellanos, vice-president of support services and engineering for VBMC said at the scene.

The underground water leak eroded the soil around the pipe, and the weight of the fire truck caused the pavement to give way, hospital officials said.

The truck made a hole about 10 feet long, 10 feet wide and four feet deep, Phil Cooper of the hospital’s engineering services said.

Castellanos said that the waterline started leaking around 1 a.m. when the hospital experienced very low water pressure.

The city’s public works crews knew the leak was in the area where the fire truck sank, but since it was an underground waterline, they couldn’t pinpoint the leak, Castellanos added.

“Leaks happen from time to time, it was just unusual that it happened underground,” Castellanos said.

Castellanos said the cause of the leak was unknown at the time of the incident.

Fire Chief Michael Rinaldi said three fire trucks responded to the hospital’s fire drill and that the pavement under the fire truck gave way as it was leaving the hospital.

The three firefighters on the truck were examined by the South Texas Emergency Care Foundation, but no injuries were reported.

Rinaldi said that the fire trucks are weighed, but he did not know the weight of the truck that sank at the time of the incident.

A La Feria wrecker was called to remove the fire truck from the sinkhole, Rinaldi added.

Castellanos said that the city would repair the leaky waterpipe and hospital would fix the street, which the hospital owns.

Rinaldi said the fire truck would be assessed for damage and that replacing the truck’s tires could be expensive. The fire truck is 15 years old and can pump 1,250 gallons of water per minute, Rinaldi said.

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Allen Essex contributed to this report.