The city Fire Department logged more than 45,000 emergency manhole incidents between 2009 and 2018—with nearly 4,000 dispatches for explosions, records obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request show.
Primarily a winter phenomenon, the blasts injured at least 57 people, along with nine more in 2019. The most common cause: aging electrical infrastructure that meets water mixed with road salt.
Critics say the city and state aren’t doing enough to demand that Con Ed do more try to prevent explosions.
