Residents at a Mount Hope apartment building say they’ve been climbing stairs for weeks after a flood left the elevator out of service.

Kathy Smith, who has chronic lung disease, says she can’t make it up the stairs without her asthma pump and often struggles to catch her breath.

Smith says a pipe that burst in one of her friend’s apartments caused the flooding and added that it’s not the first time that pipes have burst inside the walls, damaging residents’ property.

Wavecrest Management says once it was alerted to a pipe burst on Oct. 19 around 10:30 p.m., it immediately called a plumber, who fixed the leak within an hour.

The next morning, an elevator technician found significant damage to the elevator shaft and car.

The company says it’s submitting a permit to the Department of Buildings and ordering parts to begin repairs, with staff on-site to help residents.

Following an inspection, the Department of Buildings issued a “restore to service” violation to the building owner due to the broken elevator.

Officials say the owner’s elevator company has already submitted an application for elevator modernization that’s now under review.