explosive circumstance
Who can guess, all there is… BOOOOOMF… Holy Crap!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My plan for today’s post was originally going to involve fireworks, of the 4th of July variety. Wednesday night at about Midnight, however, my corner suddenly exploded. It seems that the patch job Consoldiated Edison performed in Astoria after the Great Astoria Blackout of 2006 is beginning to get a bit long in the tooth.
After a blast of bluish flame, yellow brown smoke and orange fire began to shoot out of the manhole.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in another post earlier this week, I’m the one who – when he “sees something,” then “says something” so I called 911 with one hand while reaching for my DSLR camera with the other.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This all happened right around midnight, and at about five minutes past, the next block – specifically 44th street between Broadway and 34th avenue – went dark. Even the street lights went out.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In NYC, when an emergency strikes, you want God on your side. When the FDNY gets there, God can move on to other things – as they can handle most things. Several FDNY units arrived, and set up a cordon around the burning transformer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The fire guys began knocking on doors and inspecting basements for carbon dioxide build ups, and there were a bunch of them sticking probes into the sewers and unaffected manholes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Safety tape went up just as NYPD arrived, who took charge of redirecting traffic from FDNY and began answering questions from the residents of the affected block. Before you ask, I wasn’t affected, which was very lucky.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After about an hour and a half, a Con Ed Emergency truck arrived with two guys in it. They began to assess things and the fire guys started getting ready to leave the scene. The manhole was still smoldering, but it was only emanating a trickle of white vapor by now.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Con Ed guys opened the street, and then more of them began to arrive.
When I woke up Thursday morning, there was an army of them at work down there, rewiring and rekajiggering. There was also a giant pile of media trucks. WABC was here, so was NY1, and Channel 11 too.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot above is actually the sort of thing which was intended for today, but… as I often say…
Who can guess, all there is, that might be buried down there?
Upcoming Events and Tours
Tuesday, July 12, 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. –
LICHenge, with Atlas Obscura and the
Hunters Point Park Conservancy. Click here for more details.
Saturday, July 16, 11:15 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. –
FREE Newtown Creek Boat Tour,
with Waterfront Alliance (note- WA usually releases tix in batches).
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Saturday, July 23, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. –
Calvary Cemetery Walking tour,
with Brooklyn Brainery. Click here for more details.
Tuesday, July 26, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. –
DUPBO Walking tour,
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Wednesday, July 27, 1st trip – 4:50 p.m. 2nd trip – 6:50 p.m. –
2 Newtown Creek Boat Tours,
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The Newtown Pentacle 
I know you are a stickler for details, so they were looking for carbon monoxide, not carbon dioxide. Love reading your posts. An ex Sunnyside lifer expat.
Patrick de Keyserling
July 9, 2016 at 7:47 pm
I suppose that is what they were looking for – thx.
Mitch Waxman
July 9, 2016 at 7:53 pm
[…] in Astoria, after that transformer explosion I described to you a couple of weeks ago, it took the Con Ed guys about three days – working 24 hours, mind you – to put things […]
following day | The Newtown Pentacle
July 25, 2016 at 11:00 am
[…] that there was an electrical transformer fire on my corner back in July of 2016, which was described in this post. This set off a whole slew of work by Con Ed and its contractors here in Astoria, some of which is […]
loathsome tittering | The Newtown Pentacle
December 13, 2016 at 11:00 am
[…] a couple of inches of flowing water for most of the month of April. Remember last summer, when I told you about the transformer explosion and fire on my corner? If you’re asking yourself “why does he care about this […]
revenue sloop | The Newtown Pentacle
May 8, 2017 at 11:01 am