Manhole Fire Causes Building To Be Evacuated On 5th Avenue

Another snowfall, another manhole fire in the neighborhood — the most recent incident occurred Thursday evening on 5th Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets.

The FDNY says a call about the manhole fire came in at just after 5:30pm, and they got the fire was control two hours later. They tell us that they had to evacuate everyone at 301 5th Avenue because of high levels of carbon dioxide, but thankfully nobody required medical attention, and people were able to return to the space.

This is just the latest in a series of manhole fires to occur in the area this winter, including one on Prospect Park West that caused an explosion forceful enough to blow out windows on the block and send a man to the hospital after being hit by debris.

We spoke to Con Edison last month to learn about why there are so many manhole in the winter, and it’s mostly due to all this snow.

“About 99 percent of these manhole fires are related to weather — Mother Nature,” says Sidney Alvarez, a Con Ed spokesman. “So in a nutshell, it snows — it snows heavily in this region — the city uses salt to treat the roads. When the salt and snow begins to melt, it gets into our electrical system. The salt works as a conduit so it’s a bad combination with our system. So that’s what causes the smoking manholes, and in some cases the explosions you might see.”

If you see a smoking manhole or hear any crackling, call 911 and Con Edison at 1-800-75-CONED immediately.