Water Line Breaks, Flooding Leads To Hundreds Of Calls To Metro Fire Departments

Throughout the day, fire departments across the metro have received call after call for water line breaks.

Meaning countless families are experiencing flood damage on Christmas Eve.

We've also seen damage here at the News 9 studio.

Fire crews haven't stopped responding to calls of waterline breaks all day on Saturday.

It's not how they want to spend their weekend and it is certainly not something families want to worry about during Christmas.

James Foster, a resident at West Village Apartments, fell victim to the cold.

"I was doing what we all do, last minute shopping, and I left my home around 9 a.m. and I get home around 6 or 7 p.m. and my bathroom is flooded completely."

"The carpet in my closet will need to be replaced I had some bags that were special to me so we will see what happens with that."

Luckily for him, the West Village apartment managers have taken care of him.

"They came in and wet-vaced all that they could, and they put me in a hotel and as a resident that is all I could really ask for," said Foster

Battalion Chief David Shearer said fire crews have received more than 460 calls between Friday and Saturday.

"It's extremely cold outside and the wind blows the warm air away from the pipes and so those pipes freeze and so then they crack the pipes and when they thaw the water starts flowing."

The chief said they're making changes to accommodate the high call volume.

"We've moved our commercial water keys for shutting off water in commercial structures to our brush pumpers and we can get those out there pretty quick and get them shut out and get the water shut off while still using our rescue ladders."

Fire crews have also responded to several fires this weekend.

Foster, who is displaced on Christmas, chooses to see the light,

"For me, it is just a part of life there are these inevitable changes and these variables that you just can't forecast and that's just part of being human," said Foster.

Oklahoma City fire tells me they expect the call volume to go down in the next few hours as temperatures continue to increase.