A Campbell River woman is looking for an “angel” who came to her aid when a sewage backup exploded into her bathroom and she had to hobble frantically up and down the street calling for someone to help her.
“I didn’t know the sewage line had busted, all I knew is the explosion lifted me off my seat, watching T.V.,” Morag Kruell said. “It literally lifted me off my seat.”
It was 3 p.m. on May 29 when Kruell heard a loud bang in her Campbellton house on 16th Ave. She thought it was her washing machine’s spin cycle “sending it through the floor into the basement.” She ran to the laundry room and saw water filling up the washing machine in the spin cycle.
After inspecting her laundry room and not seeing anything indicating an explosion there, other than an overflowing washing machine tub, she ran back to the bathroom. On her way there she saw water filling up the kitchen sinks.
Both of them.
“Everything was filling, okay? The kitchen sinks were filling,” Kruell said. “And spewing.”
She got to the bathroom where she saw a crack in the wall and water everywhere and figured out what had made the explosion.
“It was the tank lid that had actually hit the ceiling or the walls,” Kruell said. “The lid came off.
“Bang! Bang! and it was hitting the ceiling and was coming everywhere. And the bathroom sink was pouring over the side.”
And, by the way, Kruell said, this water was “sewage. Yellow. Brown spots. Sewage-yellow.”
“All these forces of water from the kitchen sink. The sink in the bathroom. Pressurized. Flowing over. Toilet way up. Flowing over.”
Meanwhile, Kruell is panicking. At the time she was waiting for foot surgery – which she has subsequently had – and this sewage water is gushing up out of all the drains and sinks in her house.
“So, I can’t bend. I can’t walk. I have to find a neighbour or something to get under my house to turn that water off,” she said.
So, she went for help. She “waddled” to the neighbours’ houses but nobody was home. A half hour passes with the sewage still flowing in her house.
After half an hour of running around to the neighbours, she sees a man get off the bus at Tamarac and 16th and runs over to him to ask for help.
“I saw a guy come off and I wave ‘Help me. Help me, will you please help me,’” Kruell said.
Without a moment’s hesitation he runs with her to the house and crawls under it to shut off the water.
“He came (back) into the house with me. Oh my God the man is covered with sewage.”
He was able to turn the water off and then got the spewing toilet under control.
Kruell would like to get in contact with him because she is now dealing with an insurance claim.
“I need the witness who saw this,” Kruell said.
If this person is willing to come forward, he can contact the Mirror and be put in touch with Kruell. Meanwhile, it turns out the sewage line in this 1940’s-50’s-era house was “totally plugged.” The line was too small causing the dramatic back-up.
“This man got covered in s*** for me and…I’d buy him a meal. Thank him grandly. He needs a giant hug and if he can help me again, oh, I’d love him for it.”