This situation occurred on a jobsite of a contractor of mine while I was there. (I sell steel to the construction market) This was not an occurance of natural causes. This pipeline was pierced by one of my contractor's workers as they were driving piling. I was there when it happened and alas it did create chaos as they shut the water main down to repair it.

This incident was covered by many news crews in addition to national news coverage, there were postings regarding this pipe break all over the internet, and it was made very clear in all news postings the contractor was responsible for the pipe burst. In this case, I can assure you, that is exactly what happened.