big distant boom. lights flicker, now there's helicopters

Subject: Re: big distant boom. lights flicker, now there's helicopter

pitu wrote: :shock:
anybody know what's going on?

It's 5:36pm Friday - my clock on this board is always on GMT or something equally unhelpful.

end of the world?

Subject: answer

I just saw the answer to this:

A manhole cover blew on 5th ave. They started off abc 6:00 news with this "breaking news".

hahaha manhole

Not necessarily natural gas, often it is a result of an electrical fire and the resultant buildup of smoke and heated air from the fire melting the insulation on the wires. Happened near where I used to live in Ft. Greene. Blew a hole in the sidewalk too and totaled a car, blew the windows out of the old restaurant A Table. Luckily it was the middle of the night or someone could have been killed. Scary thing is that this is a pretty regular occurrence around the city. Old wiring that gets overloaded or has frayed insulation and shorts out when water runs over it. I'm surprised your story made the news, they rarely do.

5th and Sackett, i beleive.
a friend lives nearby.

happened about a month ago too at 5th and St. Mark's.
i happened to be walking by.
firemen said it was, in fact, electrical. (that time - i assume this is a similar occurance.

unfortunately, rather than creepy, i fear its indicative a massive infastructure inadequecy in the neighborhood.

i hope not, but given the population growth of brooklyn the last ten years with all of us 'gentrifiers' running a couple of tvs a computer and assorted other appliances we may be taxing an aged electrical system.

it seems to be happening a little to often, and with increasing frequency to be entirely coincidental.

We walked by around 6:30PM and realized what happened. The mini van that was parked above/beside the manhole was totaled. Hopefully the family (charred child's seat in back seat) or anyone else passing by wasn't hurt. I've always wondered how high the covers can blow - anyone know?

roadpupp wrote: Brooklynites are so jaded that when a manhole cover gets blown 30 feet into the air, most of us just call out " tails"!!

heheheh

Nice.