A thick sheet of ice covers Malcolm Street in the Kingsessing section of Philadelphia, the result of a leaking fire hydrant nearby as bitter cold temperatures continue to strain the city’s infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The icy conditions on the 5300 block of Malcolm Street are just one of many examples playing out across the city this winter.<\/p>\n
“Look at this. Come on now,” one resident said.<\/p>\n
Neighbors say the hydrant at 54th Street and Whitby Avenue has been leaking for days, creating dangerous conditions and leaving residents frustrated by what they describe as a lack of response from the city.<\/p>\n
“Water was running all night long,” said resident Robert Allen.<\/p>\n
Lamar Washington said the water is still leaking and turning the block into an ice rink.<\/p>\n
“It started from the fire hydrant. If you ride past, it’s still leaking,” Washington said.<\/p>\n
Washington said the icy conditions have left residents feeling trapped, particularly those with mobility challenges.<\/p>\n
“My step-pop, he’s old. Like, you can’t even get out. He’s in a wheelchair. How are you gonna roll him? People can’t even park,” he said.<\/p>\n
In Kensington, residents are dealing with a similar situation.<\/p>\n
“Saturday night, the fire hydrant started to leak water,” said Chris Barba, who lives on the 2600 block of Agate Street.<\/p>\n
Barba said the area has been an icy mess for more than a week, with freezing temperatures undoing attempts to divert the water.<\/p>\n
“The storm drain that we made a channel through, you can’t really see anymore. It’s frozen, and the water is now pushing onto the street, and it’s trying to push up on these houses. So we are a bit nervous,” Barba said.<\/p>\n
In Tioga-Nicetown, crews with the Philadelphia Water Department worked to repair a water main break on the 1700 block of West Bristol Street. Some residents there were left without water and heat, while cars became stuck in ice.<\/p>\n
Residents said the conditions have made it difficult – and in some cases impossible – to get out.<\/p>\n
“We have nothing. We have nothing,” said Yolanda McFadden of Tioga-Nicetown.<\/p>\n
“We have people coming down the street slipping and sliding, and we just need this fixed,” she said.<\/p>\n
By Saturday afternoon, residents on Agate Street said the city had addressed the situation, shutting off water and working to clear the ice.<\/p>\n
Action News reached out to the Philadelphia Water Department about the incident in Kingsessing. Officials said they are looking into it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A thick sheet of ice covers Malcolm Street in the Kingsessing section of Philadelphia, the result of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[52262,52260,33062,52261,52263,69,71,70,24479],"class_list":["post-108836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-agate-street","tag-fire-hydrant","tag-icy-conditions","tag-lamar-washington","tag-malcolm-street","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philadelphia-water-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}