‘Nightmare’: Modbury office destroyed after raw sewage wreaks havoc on business

Offices in Adelaide’s northeast have been destroyed – and a local business dealing with a ‘nightmare’ – after a blocked pipe caused a poo-splosion.

A Modbury business owner whose office was flooded with raw sewage after a blocked pipe sent the backlog of water up through their floor – says she is living in a “nightmare”.

Owner of Key Conveyancing Services Melissa Belton revealed her office became inundated with water on Friday evening around 9:50pm.

Melissa Belton outside her flooded office in Modbury, after a main sewage pipe blockage that created back-flow into her office. Picture: Matt Loxton

“I was at home and fortunately, I decided to check my office cameras,” Ms Belton said.

“That’s when I saw that the office was completely flooded with what I thought was just water at the time … (but) when my husband and I got there, we realised it was sewage water.

“It appeared that all the sewage had come up out from every pipe; everything is now either destroyed or contaminated now.”

Melissa Belton's office that has been flooded with sewage after a blocked pipe caused flooding.

The whole office has been contaminated.

Ms Belton said SA Water visited the site and confirmed the main sewage pipe along North East Rd had become blocked, causing the backflow to rupture through her office floor.

“It’s such a nightmare – and according to my cameras the water was coming out of the sewer for about 10 to 15 minutes.” she said.

However, most troubling for Ms Belton is the impact this has had on her decade-old business.

“We’re in limbo at the moment,” she said.

“We were planning on moving offices in a few months and now I’m struggling with the council to fast-track the move because I have no idea how long the decontamination process will take.

“At this stage, I don’t think we’ll be able to come back into our building.”

Nothing has escaped the poo flood.

The clean up costs are expected to be “astronomical”.

Moreover, Ms Belton still has to face the mounting bill due to a loss of trade and damages.

“I’ve got 17 staff members that I’ve had to evacuate and I had to recover what we could so my business could continue to run on Monday from home,” she said.

“We’ve got our busiest week of the year this week with conveyancing and property settlements because it’s the end of financial year.

“In the meantime, the damage bill is growing because even though we have contents insurance, it doesn’t take into consideration the cost of clean up.

“And since everything is contaminated – the whole building will needed to be gutted and furniture thrown away – the clean up bill will be astronomical.”

A SA Water spokesperson confirmed the flood was due to an overflow.

“We’re continuing to provide support to one business on North East Road in Modbury, following a sewer overflow at their property last week,” they told The Advertiser.

“We are carrying out additional investigations today, including using a CCTV camera through the pipe, to understand the cause of the blockage, which will help assess any required remediation.

“Our Community Support team provided assistance to this customer, including arranging for cleaners to attend, and covering any out-of-pocket expenses.”

Originally published as ‘Nightmare’: Modbury office destroyed after raw sewage wreaks havoc on business