Dozens of residents and some business owners stood…
By Courtney Dentch
An underground electrical fire blew the covers off three manholes along Crescent Street in Astoria Friday night, forcing the Fire Department to evacuate 32 apartments for about two hours, officials said.
Dozens of residents and some business owners stood outside in the cold as about 60 firefighters battled the blaze from beneath the manholes outside apartment buildings at 21-70 and 21-62 Crescent St.
“They made us close up,” said Helen Kyriakopoulos, who runs a Laundromat at the corner of Ditmars Boulevard and Crescent Street with her parents. “Maybe I’ll go home early tonight.”
Firefighters initially responded to a manhole fire near the west side of Crescent Street just before 5 p.m., a Fire Department spokesman said. The cause of the fire was still under investigation, he said.
By the time the units arrived, smoke was billowing out of three covers, said a firefighter at the scene.
“When we got here, we saw they were already smoking,” the firefighter said. “Three of the manhole covers exploded.”
The force from the explosions shattered about 11 windows on the two apartment buildings and knocked the power out for most of the block, a spokeswoman for Con Edison said.
“It was like the loudest bang I’ve ever heard,” Kyriakopoulos said. “There was a lot of noise and a lot of black smoke.”
One elderly woman was treated for smoke inhalation, but no other injuries were reported, the Fire Department spokesman said.
The 32 apartments were evacuated after the fire spread to the basement of one of the buildings, he said.
“There was an extension from the manhole to a basement electrical panel,” the spokesman said. “It caused some high carbon monoxide readings.”
The city’s Office of Emergency Management responded and arranged for a Transit Authority bus to protect the evacuated residents from the cold temperatures, the Fire Department spokesman said. The fire was brought under control about 6:53 p.m., and power was restored to the block by 7 p.m., the Con Edison spokeswoman said.
Plywood sheets were brought in to temporarily replace the glass that had been broken, said the spokesman for the Fire Department.
Many residents of the apartment buildings were on their way home from work when the manhole covers exploded, and some heard about it on the news before seeing the fire trucks on their block.
“I was in the gym trying to work out and I saw it on the news,” one woman said. “I said, ‘that’s my building’ and came straight here.”
Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at news@timesledger.com, or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
