.Original: There's a goo or an ooze or, possibly, just oil that's rising on 23rd Street in Brooklyn right now. The New York Fire Department's Twitter account announced an "all hands" call to clean up a "large amount of a thick substance arising from the street."
What is it? Everyone loves a good mysterious ooze, especially ones that terrify the good people of Brooklyn, so there were immediately calls for "pics or it didn't happen," naturally. Somehow social media has failed us so far, or our hashtags and searches are terrible, and the mysterious Brooklyn goop has avoided social media documentation. So, for now, there are jokes. So many goo jokes!
live on the scene http://t.co/Brk4vuOWXe RT @FDNY BKLYN ALL HANDS 23 ST, A LARGE AMOUNT OF A THICK UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE ARISING FROM THE STREET
— Alex Pareene (@pareene) July 2, 2013
I know Cthulhu when I see him RT @FDNY: BKLYN ALL HANDS 23 STREET, A LARGE AMOUNT OF A THICK UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE ARISING FROM THE STREET.,
— Michael Roston (@michaelroston) July 2, 2013
Unfortunately for us, the ooze may not be nearly that exciting. The New York Times' Michael Roston reports police scanner traffic says it's just oil. Hopefully, the scanner is wrong, though! We'll report back when we know more.
Update, 12:39 p.m.: This appears to be the first photo from the oil spill in Brooklyn to emerge on Twitter, via this tweet, by way of a Facebook post from Justin Schrader. Still holding out hope for an ooze. Not giving hope until it's definitely confirmed to not be an ooze. Our original art was an approximation of the mental image that people on Twitter immediately had:
Obviously this would be the ideal outcome.
Update, 1:08 p.m.: An official update from the Fire Department:
BKLYN 23RD STREET BET 3RD/4TH AVE , WATER MAIN BREAK THAT EFFECTED A TRANSFORMER FEEDER LINE, 1000 GALLONS OF WATER MIXED WITH OIL
— FDNY (@FDNY) July 2, 2013
(Still quietly hoping for ooze truthers to blow the lid off this one.)