HARTFORD, Conn. -- A section of downtown Hartford was without electricity for several hours after an underground fire Tuesday night caused an explosion that shot flames 20 to 30 feet into the air from manholes, city officials said.
The outage affected downtown buildings, streetlights and traffic signals. Mayor Eddie Perez said the outage was confined to the central business district, where there are few residential buildings and most businesses have backup generators. But he said there are no backup systems for the traffic signals.
Additional firefighters and police officers were called to duty to "keep things safe," Perez said.
Firefighters stationed near Bushnell Park reported seeing flames shooting up from manholes at about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday at Jewell and Pearl streets.
Connecticut Light & Power Co. sent crews to the scene to assess and repair the problem. At one point some 7,000 customers were without power, according to CL&P spokesman David Radanovich. Radanovich said that by about 3 a.m. workers crews were able to isolate the damaged cables and restore power through cables that were not damaged. The lone building left without power Wednesday morning as the Mass Mutual building.
"It is still a long repair process. There was extensive damage," Radanovich said.
Crews were expected to work on repairs throughout the day and into the night, taking some 18 to 30 hours to finish the job, according to Radanovich.
It was not immediately clear what caused the fire and explosion.
Thanks for the update.