#Brooklyn water main break floods Park Slope brownstones

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Emergency workers at the scene of a water main break on St Johns Place in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Tuesday, July 7, 2020.
Annie Wermiel

A Brooklyn water main break flooded basements in a row of brownstones in Park Slope with up to five feet of water and turned the neighborhood into an ankle-deep lake Tuesday morning.

The pipe burst on St. Johns Place near Fifth Avenue shortly before 10 a.m., forcing firefighters to cordon off the street for several hours to pump out the water.

They left the scene around 1 p.m. and residents said their water was turned back on by 2 p.m.

“I was in the basement to do laundry and there was water,” homeowner David Kirschenbaum, 60, told The Post. “I tried pumping it up and it wasn’t stopping.”

Resident Kat Hornstein, 30, said she learned of the watery mishap when “my roommate said someone’s basement exploded because of water pipes.”

“The water does get turned off occasionally and there’s a lot of construction around here,” Hornstein said. “There was a lot last summer.”

Stefan Heinze and Kelsey Olafson, who live on the second floor of one of the flooded buildings, said their power and water were turned off briefly.

“We talked to one of the neighbors and they said they had five feet of water in their apartment building,” said Heinze, 30.

Olafson, 29, also blamed the water main break on construction in the area.

“A month ago they were excavating the area,” he said. “That just seemed like that was the cause of where the leak was.”

Fire officials at the scene said eight buildings were flooded but said no residents were displaced.