Water pressure built up that was so powerful it erupted 'like a fountain' and blew the heavy concrete and metal slab 12ft into the air. Dad-of-two Jode (corr) Wardell watched in horror as the cover landed just a metre away from where his wife Adriana, 42, was standing. He said: "It could have killed her. My wife was standing one pace to the right of it, and it landed a metre away from her. "If she had been one step to the left of it, the weight of it would have killed her. "I'm a big guy and I couldn't lift it - that thing must have weighed a couple of hundred kilos.