When 315L of Boiling Water is Barely Enough!

Our hot water heater burst this morning. Yes, burst. Boiling water and steam started pissing from the top. RW came in to my room at about 9.15am to tell me there was water all over the floor and that she thought it was the water heater. I’d seen the water the night before and earlier that morning, and just assumed she’d dripped wet clothes over the floor.  Then she asked me to actually come and look.

Um, well. The “wet clothes drippage” water had turned into a flood of boiling water and steam. RW was standing there mopping it up. I glanced at the label on the water heater, and noticing that it said “Capacity 315L”, advised her that mopping wasn’t going to help.

We called the real estate agent and they asked us to email them about the problem, with an assurance they would get someone to deal with it “soon”. Needless to say, we called back a few times, each time explaining the situation (steam, water, flooding, probable damage). After a while, I decided to turn off the power. Then we called them again, and they asked me to turn off the water. I said “no” and the RA asked “why not”, which is when I again explained about the boiling water and steam cascading from the water heater.

My lovely mum called energy australia and spoke to Frank, who was horrified at the RA’s lasseiz faire attitude. They didn’t even ask once “are you ok”, or instruct us to remove ourselves from the danger zone. Even if they don’t give a shit about us as people, they could at least give a fuck about the OHS / insurance implications of us getting injured. But no. Instead, we got told that “this happens all the time”. Frequency does not diminish the risk, though.     

I’m really stressed about this. Moving is stressful enough, but this is just the stress icing on the stress cake. Grrr!