WESTBROOK — A water main break inside Westbrook’s public safety building damaged records but narrowly missed soaking expensive computer equipment.

One of the fire department captains was in his office of the 7-year-old building at 7:20 a.m. when he heard a loud bang and the sound of gushing water, said Public Safety Chief Mike Pardue. The firefighter went to the basement and found that a water main, between 6 and 8 inches in diameter, had ruptured.

The basement of the building houses the department’s information technology, fitness center, locker rooms and records, Pardue said.

Within a couple minutes, the water was 6 to 8 inches deep on the floor and the force of the water coming from the pipe had blown a hole in the women’s locker room, he said.

Nobody was in the basement at the time. The water main was shut off and repairs are now under way. Engineers are examining the equipment to determine why it ruptured.

The water line serves the building sprinkler system and the domestic water supply was not affected, Pardue said. Some old, archived records were damaged, but none used on a regular basis, he said.

Computer servers were elevated off the ground and narrowly missed getting wet, he said.