Disaster on a stick

[jamotto]

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NEW YORK - An attempt to erect the worldÔÇÖs largest popsicle in a city square ended with a scene straight out of a disaster film ÔÇö but much stickier.

The 25-foot-tall, 17›-ton treat of frozen Snapple juice melted faster than expected Tuesday, flooding Union Square in downtown Manhattan with kiwi-strawberry-flavored fluid that sent pedestrians scurrying for higher ground.

Firefighters closed off several streets and used hoses to wash away the sugary goo.

Snapple had been trying to promote a new line of frozen treats by setting a record for the worldÔÇÖs largest popsicle, but called off the stunt before it was pulled fully upright by a construction crane. Authorities said they were worried the thing would collapse in the 80-degree, first-day-of-summer heat.

ÔÇ£What was unsettling was that the fluid just kept coming,ÔÇØ Stuart Claxton of the Guinness Book of World Records told the Daily News. ÔÇ£It was quite a lot of fluid. On a hot day like this, you have to move fast.ÔÇØ

Snapple official Lauren Radcliffe said the company was unlikely to make a second attempt to break the record, set by a 21-foot ice pop in Holland in 1997.

The giant ice pop was supposed to have been able to withstand the heat for some time, and organizers werenÔÇÖt sure why it didnÔÇÖt. It had been made in Edison, N.J., and hauled to New York by freezer truck in the morning.

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