Basements Flood in Morningside Heights After Sprinkler System Bursts Updated May 16, 2011 10:24am

A sprinkler system burst at 311 W. 103rd St. Monday morning, flooding basements along the block. (DNAinfo/Gabriela Resto-Montero)

By Gabriela Resto-Montero

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS — A fire sprinkler system burst in a building at 103rd Street and West End Avenue Monday morning, flooding the basements of several buildings on the block, residents and officials said.

The FDNY responded to 311 W. 103rd St. just before 8 a.m. Monday after getting calls of a pipe burst there, they said.

"It must have happened some time in the middle of the night, because by the time we got down to the basement at 7 a.m., it was coming up the steps," said Rajeev Bhaman, 47, whose family owns the single-family building 311 W. 103rd St. "The joys of homeownership."

The basement of the building was flooded, as were the basements of 315 and 317 W. 103rd streets, residents said.

No one was hurt and the residents did not have to evacuate, officials said.

Water gushes out of pipes after flooding basements along 103rd Street near West End Avenue. (DNAinfo/Gabriela Resto/Montero)

"The sprinkler main broke, and it's all coming into our basement. The firefighters woke me up," said one tenant at 315 E. 103rd St.

A Department of Environmental Protection spokesman did not immediately respond to calls for comment.