Did anyone else see a ton of smoke and hear a large blasting noise yesterday evening around 5:15 – 5:20ish outside the Garden? I watched for a second as the fire fighters started to arrive but it was really smokey. I returned around 10pm to rent a vid at Photoplay and Con Ed was there tooling around a manhole cover. Does anyone know anything about this?
Yesterday Around 5:20pm Outside The Garden
It was an explosion that burst off the manhole. I was exiting the G at Greenpoint, heard a loud boom — like the train’s emergency brakes were pulled but it was still in motion — the lights flickered, and there was smoke coming out of the manhole outside of the cleaners/liquor store.
While riding my bike home I had to take a detour to McGuinness, this was around 5:50. The whole block was closed off…lots of police and fire trucks, but I have no idea what was going on.
I saw this yesterday when I got off the train from work – at first I was worried that bodega on Gpoint & Manhattan was on fire again! But it was just a blown manhole cover.
I see. So, this is a really dumb question, but what exactly is a blown manhole cover?
Kind of like that large gas explosion that happened near Grand Central a few years ago — only Greenpoint’s was on a much smaller scale.
Saw a glut of Con-ed guys down there this morning on my way to work. Looks like it’s getting fixed. Hope nothing else explodes!
Supposedbly a manhole cover blew up, and picked up a car 6 feet in the air. One of the con edison guys told me as i was walking to get some food.
The glass at the liquor store was damaged.
That section of the block was closed off.
http://greenpointnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/our-own-starbucks-explosion.html
While I was in the garden (around 7 PM) more cop cars and an ambulance pulled up to the scene and there was a man lying on the ground – not sure why – but maybe there was another explosion or something happened to one of the con-ed guys??? Wish I could be more helpful. I am always afraid of Man-holes blowing up or giving off shocks. (irrational??, maybe)