Overview

• At 5:20 p.m. Thursday a fire erupted from a manhole at Central and Myrtle Avenues in Bushwick, sending pedestrians and vehicles scrambling.
• Just over two hours later a second blaze broke out at Lewis Avenue and Pulaski Street, prompting a 60-member FDNY and EMS response.
• Con Edison crews assisted in securing the underground vaults at both sites and confirmed there were no injuries.
• Clips shared on the Citizen app show columns of flame shooting into the street and nearing nearby cars and businesses before firefighters extinguished the fires.
• These back-to-back incidents echo earlier manhole explosions in Poughkeepsie and intensify scrutiny of the city’s aging subsurface utility network.