What to Know
- Hundreds of New York City manholes have started smoking or have caught fire since Saturday
- Con Ed has responded to around 306 manhole-related incidents since Saturday, including 287 smoking manholes and 19 manhole fires
- Several of the manhole fires ignited in Brooklyn on Saturday, one of which burned for more than nine hours
Hundreds of New York City manholes have started smoking or have caught fire since Saturday — marking the busiest stretch of manhole problems for Con Edison in over a year, the agency said.
The agency has responded to around 306 manhole-related incidents since Saturday, including 287 smoking manholes and 19 manhole fires, it said.
News 4 traveled to three different boroughs on Monday and spotted smoking manholes in East New York, the East Village and in Woodside.
“It’s a very busy time, with smoking manholes. The salt gets into the vaults and of course erodes the wires, and we’ve had a bunch of them,” Con Edison spokesman Robert McGee told News 4.
“As long as we have this situation where we have melting snow going into manholes and bringing salt into manholes, we should have problems,” he added.
Several of the manhole fires ignited in Brooklyn on Saturday, one of which burned for more than nine hours.
Local
Con Edison has taken a number of new steps to battle manhole-related problems, including infrared scanners that detect the hot spots before they pop and manhole simulators, which allow crews to train for handling smoking manholes safely and more quickly.
