The sky looked smokey black and misty as we left my sister’s
Prospect Park West apartment building on Saturday night. As we turned
the corner
onto First Street we smelled smoke and my husband spotted sparks coming
out of a manhole. There was a distinct rumbling sound mixed with tiny
explosions.We called 911 and within
minutes all the Park Slope companies were in attendance.
It seems that the salt that the city spreads on the streets to melt
the snow not only rusts through automobiles and bridges but also seeps
into the manholes and causes electrical shorts. Sometimes the result is
stray voltage that last year electrocuted to death the
woman in the East Village walking her dogs, who coincidently went to the same boarding school in California as my husband. Sometimes the saltwater in the
manhole leads to an electrical fire or an explosion like the one that
destroyed a car and blew out windows on the same Brooklyn block a decade ago.
The
smoke turned black and the rumbling got louder. First Street
residents poured out of their brownstones; some said their lights were flickering. A friend came out onto
the street in a vintage fur coat with a glass of wine wine and a
cigarette and asked us what was going on. "I thought the kid down the
street was drumming. That’s why I came out…"
We explained
what we knew. The crowd looked on nervously as the
firefighters figured out what to do: they seemed to be waiting for Con
Edison to turn the electricity off. I wondered which of
the firefighters had been at the World Trade Center on 9/11. Squad 1
lost eleven men that day, including one of my friends. I imagined that
they looked much the same as they did early on 9/11, as they got
ready to save lives and property, not sure what they were getting
themselves into.
I went home to relieve our babysitter. My husband stayed behind,
interested to see what was going to happen next. After about an hour Con Edison
had not appeared so my husband came home, leaving the firemen watching
the smoke, listening to the rumbling, and waiting.
Yours from Brooklyn,
OTBKB
The only solution to stray voltage dangers is to have the on site real time warning system called the Electrified Cover Safeguard installed on all street lamps, manhole covers and utility boxes. The technology makes a audible warning such as a beeping sound as well as a flashing light to warn people and pets not to step on or touch dangerously charged manhole covers and street lamps. Periodic testing of the infrastructure is not good enough, since one second, something can be ok and just a few moments latter, can become electrified. The company that invented the Electrified Cover Safeguard, seems to have patented the concept of an on-site real time stray voltage system. More information on this technology can be found at http://www.ManholeSafety.com.