By Michelle Staley
“It was like a bomb went off,” said Mark Boccia, owner of Bourbon Street, which faces out on the site of the explosion, which occurred at 7:20 p.m. on July 14. “The noise went right through you like a vibration.”
In the confusion, patrons panicked, Boccia said. “People were crying,” he said. “One woman said, 'You don't understand, I was in 9/11.'”
Flames shot from the hole on the street between 40th and 41st avenues on Bell Boulevard as heavy rains pelted the area.
“It was like you were in Jerusalem or Baghdad,” said civic activist Frank Skala, who was celebrating his birthday by dining at Bourbon Street. “It was scary. Thank goodness no one got hurt.”
Boccia credited a car parked near the explosion for acting as a shield.
“Thank God there was a car there,” he said. “If there wasn't a car there, someone would have gotten hurt – possibly several people.”
Skala said he and his family were seated in front of the restaurant's open doors when flames erupted and blew the metal plates covering an existing construction hole into the air and onto the side. “The flames were spectacular, better than the Fourth of July,” he said.
The stretch of Bell Boulevard from Northern Boulevard to 39th Avenue has been under much construction lately for various reasons. Last month, construction workers repaired a collapsed sewer pipe at 42nd Avenue and Bell Boulevard, and recently ConEdison workers were believed to be working on electrical lines that run under the street, according to local merchants.
Firefighters responded at 7:23 p.m. to Bell Boulevard and 40th Avenue, according to Lieutenant Mike Balfe from Battalion 53, Engine 306.
“We heard it from the firehouse before we got the call,” Balfe said.
Between 25 and 30 firefighters were on the scene for approximately 2 1/2 hours, Balfe said. Once the fire was contained, firefighters were concerned about the levels of carbon monoxide in the air, he said.
The welfare of those living in apartments in the block above Bourbon Street was checked and no one was injured, he said.
The smoke caused at least one restaurant, Planet Thai, to temporarily close its doors, Balfe said. However, no one was evacuated from the area, he said.
Police officers were on the scene directing traffic, said Gary Poggiali, the 111th Precinct community affairs officer. Police were also keeping residents calm and informed, he said.
Poggiali said he was not aware of any injuries. He said he was told a transformer had erupted, causing the fire and the power outages.
Con Edison spokesman Carl Lee said that the fire was electrical but could not confirm it was related to a transformer problem. He said the incident was still under investigation and a cause had yet to be determined, adding that it could take months for the company to determine the cause.
Lee said the explosion caused 1,113 residents to lose power at 8 p.m. July 14. Power was restored to 438 residents an hour later and no one was without power by 10:45 p.m. that night, he said.
The boundaries of the outage were 26th Avenue to the north, 41st Street to the south, 223rd Street to the east and Bell Boulevard to the west, Lee said.
The Bourbon Street did not lose power, Boccia said, but the disruption was enough to affect business.
“This is the second time in eight months that ConEd has cost me business,” Boccia said, explaining he had to close his doors for 1 1/2 days in February due to a power outage. “Something has to be done.”
