D.C. firefighters responded Friday evening to a house fire on the 900 block of Ninth Street NE. But it might have been a bit tricky for firefighters to fix their hose to the nearby hydrant.

It’s a very romantic notion—on an especially hot days, the kids head out into the streets and frolic in a pressurized stream of water flowing from their closest fire hydrant. It’s also a terrible idea that D.C. officials are emphatically discouraging.

The residents of Washington are no stranger to fire hydrant troubles. So when a DCist reader noticed that the hydrant in the photo to the right had been spewing water for some time, an email landed in our inbox.