Officials at Coney Island's Luna Park could have been hung out to dry because of an incident involving the popular Wild River water ride.
Brooklyn Daily reporter Will Bredderman snapped a photo of a hose attached to a city fire hydrant filling up the ride. Even though Luna Park sits on city land, a permit is needed to use a public hydrant.
Luna Park spokeswoman, Nicole Purmal said maintenance crews saw that the ride's water levels were down so they tapped into the closest hydrant to keep it open.
"Our maintenance crew ended up making a quick last-minute call," Purmal said. "They hooked up to the fire hydrant out here and got probably 35-hundred gallons of water."
The Wild River ride usually contains 40-thousand gallons of water a day. In a statement the park's management company CAI said "at the time of this occurrence, CAI's management was unaware, and has since implemented proper protocol internally, so this will not happen again." The company also said it was disciplining the workers involved.
One neighborhood activist condemned the practice as putting fun before safety.
"A firefighter or personal property could be in danger if firefighters are delayed in getting to that water," said Todd Dobrin, of the Friends of the Boardwalk watchdog group.
Dept of Environmental Preservation inspectors chose not to impose hefty fines and even possibly jail time for the act.
