By Laura French
NEW YORK — Two FDNY members and a power company worker were injured after a manhole explosion in Manhattan on Sunday.
Personnel initially responded to the scene early Sunday morning to find smoke coming from multiple manholes, FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief John Sarrocco said in a statement.
“We did searches throughout all the buildings on each side of the street. The situation seemed to be under control at that point, we remained on scene for about three hours. During that time, at about 7:40, we had an explosion in one of the manholes which escalated the incident,” Sarrocco stated.
An EMS provider and a Con Edison worker were injured in the initial blast. There were multiple power outages and a rise in CO levels, and the incident was raised to a three-alarm assignment. About 150 firefighters conducted extensive searches of buildings, checking all of the elevators due to the power outages, and one firefighter was injured in the course of the operation, Sarrocco said.
“We also had civilians that need electricity for life-support systems. Those people are being evaluated by FDNY personnel,” Sarrocco said from the scene on Sunday. “This was a long and extensive operation.”
The conditions of the injured personnel were not reported. WABC reports that the firefighter experienced difficulty breathing during the incident.