Monday, August 27th, 2012

UPDATE: Apparently West 114th experienced several manhole explosions shortly after this post went up — additional details below.

MUW reader and frequent tipster Ashira  just sent in the photo above, snapped around 5:45 pm Monday.

Apparently there’s a manhole fire of some sort at the intersection of Broadway & 114th. Per Ashira:

Street is blocked off and firefighters are on scene.

No word on what may have caused the incident.

Seems like you might want to avoid the area by car/taxi/bus for a while.

I supposed it’s conceivable the fire could also affect 1/2/3 trains depending on where it is relative to the tracks, but right now MTA.info says no delays.

UPDATE: From Kate, via the comments section below:

A transformer blew, according to police at the scene. It got much worse over the course of the evening–several big explosions and dozens of little ones. It sounded as though giants were making popcorn, and black smoke billowed out of manholes along 114th St between Broadway and Riverside.

UPDATE: Columbia Spectator has additional details, noting the explosions started after 6:00 pm:

The electrical fire extended underground from Riverside all the way along 114th St to Broadway. Every manhole cover in the area of the fire was blown from place in explosions. Representatives from ConEd say that they do not yet know what caused the fire. According to a police officer at the scene, there are no reported injuries at this time.

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Tags: Broadway, Explosion, FDNY, Fire, manhole exploion, manhole fire, New York City, NYC, street closure, Upper West Side, UWS