Crime & Safety
Hundreds Without Power In Clinton Hill After Manhole Fire
The Clinton Avenue fire caused local outages Monday, adding to the thousands of Brooklynites still without power after the weekend heatwave.
CLINTON HILL, BROOKLYN — Hundreds of people in Clinton Hill were without power after a manhole fire erupted on their block Monday morning, joining thousands of other Brooklynites that were also in the dark after an extreme weekend heat wave.
Firefighters rushed to the corner of Gates and Clinton avenues just after 5 a.m. after hearing that there was smoke coming out from under parked car, an FDNY spokesman said. When they got there, the firefighters found a manhole fire near the intersection. They spent about two hours controlling the blaze and left around 7:18 a.m.
There were no injuries from the fire, the spokesman said, but ConEdison maps show that hundreds in the blocks surrounding the fire are still without power.
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About 319 customers on Clinton Avenue between Gates and Lafayette avenues were still in the dark as of 10:30 a.m., the maps show. Another 16 customers on Greene Avenue closer to Vanderbilt Avenue were also without power.
ConEdison did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment or to questions about whether the manhole fire was the only cause of these outages. The FDNY spokesman did not have details about the outages.
Find out what's happening in Fort Greene-Clinton Hillfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Those households joined thousands of people in other neighborhoods in the borough that were also left without power Monday morning due to the weekend's heat wave.
About 14,0000 residents in Brooklyn and almost 20,000 New Yorkers in total remained in the dark as Con Ed worked to make heat-related repairs, which the company said would be completed on Monday.
More than 30,000 people lost power over the weekend as temperatures in New York City spiked to 99 degrees — with a 110 degree heat index value — and Mayor Bill de Blasio called a state of emergency.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent 200 state police, 100 generators and 50 light towers to Brooklyn on Sunday and blasted the electric company on Twitter.
"We've been through this situation w [sic] ConEd time & again," Cuomo wrote."They should have been better prepared—period."
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