The bizarre but beloved Bedford-Stuyvesant Street aquarium that was born in the summer was destroyed during an FDNY fire hydrant inspection on Tuesday, but local residents are already starting to pick up the pieces.
A nickel-sized goldfish flopped on a Brooklyn sidewalk after firefighters turned off a fire hydrant. The fire hydrant has been the water source for the temporary pond since it was installed in August.
in video shot Hajj Malik Robic, who helped build the fish pool, said a bystander could be heard asking smoke eaters about the fish left in the murky water, asking the smoke eaters if they would survive.
Another firefighter went on to explain that the hydrant inspection was a semi-annual check to see if the water was still working.
They also warned furious locals that a leak in the colder months could be disastrous, resulting in pipes freezing and leaving hydrants unusable when they are needed in an emergency. He said there is.
“[The fish] He's not going to survive, look what he did,” Lovic narrated as he zoomed into the water. “That dirty water. They knew what they did. No.”
In fact, the fish died.
Aquarium enthusiasts awoke Wednesday morning to find “more than 100” dead goldfish that had failed to survive the sudden deterioration of the ad hoc biome.
But the sun never sets on an urban aquarium.
Organizers are already reviewing the construction of the precious waterhole to avoid future disasters.
Local contractor David Jones lives about a block away from the landmark with his brother. The two were at work Wednesday night, using caulk to seal a professional pond liner to the bottom of the makeshift tank.
“We have it waterproofed so you don’t have to worry about it being up all the time,” Jones told the Post. “The fire department was complaining about water coming out. So we're going to waterproof it.”
Architect Devan Arvind Shah, 44, also lives nearby and came to help.
“It should be up and running by tomorrow,” he said in the post.
Another local resident, Sofia Buffa, said her father was visiting from Atlanta and was excited to see what was so typical of Brooklyn.
“He was so excited to see it,” Buffa told the Post. “He calls me all the time. [saying] “What's going on at the aquarium?” Oh my god. he will be devastated. He was literally answering questions about it on Instagram. He wrote a Google review.
“He doesn't live here, but the magic of the aquarium has reached him.”
Floyd Washington, one of the project's co-founders, told the Post: I'm from. ”
Washington added, “This is not about a fish problem. This is a story about a chaotic urban community.”
The actions taken Tuesday followed standard operating procedures, according to the FDNY.
A department spokesperson told the Post that the FDNY “took no action against the fish” and “drained the pond.”
Instead, the fire department performed routine maintenance on the hydrants, which is scheduled twice a year, the spokesperson said.
FDNY officials confirmed the fire hydrant was working properly and turned off the water.
As for the colder months, organizers are currently trying to come up with a plan to keep the fish safe and healthy.
“We're going to put in a heater. We generated the heater with solar panels,” Robic told the Post, adding that he also plans to add a cover to prevent snow and freezing rain from lowering the temperature of the pond. .
