Video shows water pouring out of ceiling from leak at Embarcadero BART, Muni station in San Francisco

ByAnser Hassan KGO logo
Thursday, July 18, 2019
Leak sends water pouring out of ceiling at BART station
Water has been cascading down from a ceiling at the Embarcadero BART station all morning after a Muni fire suppression test went wrong.A major leak sent water cascading down from the Muni level onto the BART tracks at the Embarcadero station.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Muni employees greeted Muni passengers at the Embarcadero station with this message during Thursday morning: "If you are going to ride Muni, take BART all the way back to Montgomery Station. You get a free ride on BART!"

UPDATE: Flood waters shut down Muni at SF's Embarcadero station

But a free BART ride wasn't enough to help Muni passengers already late for work.

"I am worried. How am I going to get to work! I don't want to be late!" says one Muni passenger, who admits that it doesn't help that she is new to using the Muni system.

The problem facing commuters was the gallons of water overflowing from the Embarcadero Muni station onto the BART platform below.

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"We were able to get the water out between 5 and 6 this morning. There may have been some residual water that drained down onto the BART station," explains Paul Rose, a spokesperson with SFMTA.

Rose says overnight crews were doing routine tests of the fire sprinkler system. But the drainage system malfunctioned, flooding the Muni station and tracks.

"My understanding is that there was significant flooding on the trackway and on the station area where passengers would normally stand. And because of that we had stopped service in the area," says Rose.

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Clean up crews spent the morning sweeping water off the BART platform, as passengers navigated through the puddle and buckets of waters.

"I have lived here for such a long time, that you just roll with it," says Joe Tate who lives in Berkeley. "But with any transit system, there is always going to be a break down, so you just deal with it!"

BART says the Muni pipe has now been capped. The Muni station reopened around 3:30 p.m.

Muni is offering free BART rides for Muni passengers from the Embarcadero to Montgomery until the station reopens.

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