NEW CONCORDIA — A broken fire hydrant flooded an Oak Park intersection Thursday and quickly became a neighborhood water park before city crews could ruin everybody’s fun.
Children arrived first. Lawn chairs followed. By late afternoon, residents had coolers, portable speakers and a folding table covered with grilled food beside several inches of rushing water.
“This is the best thing the city has built over here in years,” resident Clarence Willis said. “That probably explains why they’re coming to shut it down.”
Public Works employees eventually closed the hydrant after nearly five hours. A department spokesperson reminded residents that playing in hydrant water can be dangerous and interferes with emergency water pressure.
That warning received limited enthusiasm from the crowd.
“They fix this in five hours, but the streetlight outside my house been blinking since Easter,” one woman yelled as crews packed up.
The city has not said what caused the hydrant failure. Oak Park residents would like to know whether another one is likely to break on Saturday.