Water Heaters - water heater + flooded basement = no ignition ...

like the title says my basement has flooded and submerged the bottom of the water heater..

Initially it seemed it was going to light for me but I couldn't get the flame to say lit..

after trying again I noticed i no longer get the little puff of flame when I hit the igniter button..

I imagine that I may have some water in the lines but I'm confused why I saw the actual burner attempting to light before..

Also the igniter itself gives off a spark when I disconnect the line and hold it close to check for an arch, does that mean it should be ok?

this is a sealed up unit with a window to give me a peak whats going on inisde.. I did turn off the gas and tried to disconnect the gas line running in to the unit so i could try blowing through the line.. I stopped when i found that the lines wasnt as easily removable as it seemed.. After removing the nut I found a rigid tube of sorts running in to the unit that was held secure by the nut i removed.. Any idea if i can pull out this tube in order to blow air through the line?


thanks for any help you can provide

Call in a pro on this. More can go wrong with gas appliances that have been subjected to water than you want to know. The burner could have been compromised by being hit with cold water while lit and hot, the gas lines to the burner could have ingested water, etc.

I appreciate youre advise..

I went to the depot and picked up a new water heater..


for a 100 bucks more than a tech would have charged I figured I could replace it..

alls I got to do now is wait for my shower to heat up :)