Smoldering insulation covering electrical cables triggered a series of explosions that sent manhole covers in Greenwich Village flying into the air and filled streets with thick, black smoke.
One person was injured.
Three explosions shook Houston Street between Thompson and MacDougal streets. A massive blast that rocked buildings at 6 p.m. was followed by two smaller ones minutes later, a Con Ed spokesman said.
“The manhole cover went 30 feet in the air,” said Andrew Raffetto, 44, the owner of Raffetto’s pasta shop on Houston.
“Luckily, it landed straight down on the grassy median.”
Ambrose Regan was in his apartment on MacDougal Street when the floors started to shake.
“It was just a sonic boom,” said the 43-year-old Internet entrepreneur. “The whole house rattled.”
A Connecticut high-school teacher was injured as she ran down MacDougal Street, away from the smoke – and was hit by falling glass from the blown-out, second-floor window of a town house.
“She was basically in shock. She was as white as a piece of paper,” said Chris Boley, 28, a waiter at Salt who called 911.
The woman was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital with a severed tendon in her left hand.