WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — Hundreds of homes regained power Thursday afternoon, hours after a manhole fire likely sparked by running air conditioners knocked out electricity, officials said.
A blast occurred near the intersection of Wadsworth Terrace and West 190th Street about 5:51 a.m., causing 770 homes to lose power, according to Con Ed and FDNY officials.
"There was an explosion in the night and then there was a popping noise," said Jose Bernal-Lopez, 57, who lives in a third-floor apartment nearby.
"I looked outside and saw the fire. That's when I said, 'You know what? I'm going to leave the building.'"
Lorenis Espinosa, 20, also ran outside when she heard the noise, she said.
"I saw the fire. It was kind of violent. There was a popping noise and the fire would go in and come out," she said.
The fire was brought under control about 6:50 a.m. and no injuries were reported, an FDNY spokesman said.
The affected homes regained power about 2:30 p.m., a Con Ed spokesman said.
The utility company dispatched crews to the scene to investigate the cause of the outage and make repairs, a spokesman said.
While they have yet to determine the official cause, the spokesman said it was likely caused by air conditioner use.
"When temperatures rise, more customers use their air conditioners. Often you'll find that wires could overheat and catch on fire and cause an outage," said Con Ed spokesman Alfonso Quiroz. "It looks like that’s what happened in this case."
There have been similar outages elsewhere in recent weeks, Quiroz added.
