Explosion Rattles Forest Hills Residents

Queens Tribune – February 22, 2017

by Jon Cronin

Three manhole covers exploded on Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills on Sunday night.

The FDNY and Con Edison confirmed that three manhole covers were on fire near 68th Drive.

“The cause was the same as always at this time of year,” said Allan Drury, a spokesman for Con Ed. “It’s a failure on the underground electrical delivery system due to road salt washing into the system.”

He said the explosion was caused by gases and heat built up in the manhole.

The FDNY reported that they were called at 10:44 p.m. and had the fires under control by 12:27 a.m. Afterwards, Con-Ed took over at the scene.

Con Ed said the electrical fire knocked out service to an apartment building at 102-30 Queens Blvd. Service was restored to those all 106 customers in the building by Tuesday afternoon.

No comments yet.

Leave a Reply

This is not an official City of New York or FDNY website. All information shall not be considered that given by the New York City Fire Department or FDNY. The FDNY acronym and the FDNY Shield Design are federal registered trademarks owned by the City of New York.

Copyright 2014 Civil Service Media. All rights reserved.