BALTIMORE — Water has been restored at the Marriott Inner Harbor and Hilton Baltimore after a water main break caused a steam pipe explosion Sunday.
There is still a large hole in the ground on Eutaw Street from the explosion. DPW said the street will remain closed indefinitely, but two lanes are open on Pratt Street.
It was a surprise to many after a loud noise followed the steam pipe rupture. Lachelle Downs was in her room at the Hilton Baltimore when the explosion happened.
"We looked out the window and there was water everywhere, smoke and then the fire station came,” said Downs.
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Downs said when she woke up Monday morning she could still see the effects, "I got up and it was like seven in the morning and it was back on but it was brown so we had to let the water run for a little while.”
BGE crews were installing a gas line early Sunday morning when they struck an unmarked pipe near Pratt and Eutaw Streets. This caused a water main break that led to the steam pipe explosion.
"Smoke was all in the sky covering the sun and everything. It was like it was a bad cloud. It felt like the ground was shaking like it was an earthquake,” said Quintino Mccleoy, who works at Marriott.
Water was shut off at both the Hilton Baltimore and the Marriott Inner Harbor as their locations are next to where the explosion happened. Marriott general manager Brian Williams said they were at about 50 percent occupancy when this happened.
But five gallon water containers were provided to guests until water was back on.
"Fortunately for us we had a lot of people going over to the game, so the impact was minimal when it immediately happened. The problem came when they came back from the game and wanting to take showers,” said Williams.
Assistant Director Bernadette Davison from the Hilton said they went without water longer than they anticipated.
"We had to relocate a lot of guests to different hotels just so they had access to water and then on top of that compensate the guests we did have in house that had to go without water. They originally said it was only supposed to be about two or three hours, but it ended up being all night,” said Davison.
The fire department said the explosion caused the road to rupture causing injury to four construction workers, three of them went to the hospital. The fourth worker requested not to be transported.
No one was critically injured.
