Loud Banging/Crashing Noise Over the East River

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nyboom175055462jan17,0,6579016.story?coll=ny-nynews-print

Boom!! Con Ed: It's only steam
BY JUSTIN R. SILVERMAN
amNEWYORK

January 17, 2007

The roaring booms that rattled much of the East Side Monday night were set off by the release of steam after a malfunction at a Con Edison plant, the agency said yesterday.

"The system worked just as it should have," Con Ed spokesman Chris Olert said. "At no time was there an explosion."





Olert said that a generating unit tripped as it was being brought online, and the noise and steam originated from boiler safety valves.

Those booms shook the area around the East 14th Street plant as neighbors worried the plant had suffered another explosion, as it did more than four years ago when tens of thousands of residents were left without power for about eight hours.

Monday night, residents poured out of apartment buildings and gathered around the plant at the end of the street, where large blasts of steam could be seen shooting skyward at regular intervals.

Firefighters and police blocked off the intersection of Avenue C and 14th Street but did not enter the plant. The FDNY does not enter Con Ed facilities unless the power company requests assistance.

After about 30 minutes the tripped boiler was fully depressurized and the booms ceased.

"Monday night was not as scary as in 2002, said Christopher J. Ryan, 37, a resident of Avenue C whose apartment overlooks the power plant, "but the noise was still pretty darn menacing."