SAN FRANCISCO – Police arrested a resident of a luxury apartment building after they said vandalism led to flooding at the property.
Police said they were initially called to the building on Van Ness Avenue early Tuesday morning for a report of vandalism, KPIX reported.
Residents woke up to find their hallways flooded, and water gushing through the building.
“I opened the stairway and there was a running stream of high pressured water, maybe a foot, multiple feet, gushing down the stairs,” Andrew, a resident, told KGO.
When firefighters and officers arrived at the scene, they said they found a naked man, identified as Michael Nien, drenched in water standing next to the broken pipe, KRON reported.
“Upon arrival, we were confronted with a person experiencing a behavioral crisis,” Lt. Jonathan Baxter with SF Fire told KGO. “During the course of this flood, this individual released several standpipes throughout the 11th floor.”
Baxter told the station that firefighters worked with building management to shut the standpipes down.
Photos obtained by The San Francisco Standard show water gushing into a stairwell and flooding a hallway.
K.J. Kim, a resident, told KGO that the water rose up to 4 feet in some areas. Kim said the fire alarms did not go off immediately, and he woke up when his dog started barking.
“It was like a fight or flight reaction,” Kim said. “My dog was continuing to bark. I went to the bathroom and heard some generator noise and there was water falling from the ceiling. So, I said there is something seriously wrong. I went outside and saw the water puddles on the floor. I just got my dog and had to figure out how to get out.”
The building has 30 floors, and apartments on the 11th floor and below were affected, with multiple units now uninhabitable, The San Francisco Standard reported.
A letter from the building’s management company to tenants that was shared with The Standard, said that residents would be reimbursed up to $300 for a night of lodging and that the company was looking into alternative housing for those who need it.
Fire department officials told KGO that residents from 16 units were displaced.
Nien was arrested and taken to the San Francisco County Jail on suspicion of felony vandalism and resisting arrest, police told the San Francisco Chronicle.
