Transformer fire closes 34th Street, 3 buildings evacuated

Transformer fire closes 34th Street, 3 buildings evacuated

NEW YORK -- Midtown traffic was disrupted and people were evacuated from three commercial buildings near Penn Station on Monday after an underground transformer fire created a heavy smoke condition in the busy area, fire department officials said.

One unconfirmed report said two people suffered minor injuries. Four hours after the fire, a Con Edison spokesman said the fire was out and at least one lane of traffic had been reopened.

The fire scene was across the street from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, the site of next month's Republican National Convention. Construction of security barriers and other facilities for the convention already is in progress, adding to congestion in the area.

Unconfirmed reports said the transformer fire started with an explosion in an underground vault about 9:15 a.m., sending heavy black smoke up through subway gratings.

This is probably nothing more than an electrical fault, but still, just goes to show that there's a lot of jitters at the moment.

Its an odd coincidence though, here in Phoenix we have had 2 major transformer fires in the past month, the first on July 4th, and then another at a seperate facility last week. Theyve been causing us all kinds of problems, APS wants us to conserve energy, which is hard to do when the a/c has to battle 110 degree heat.

its the medias fault. They need to move on. If the country is going to get attacked like they are saying then why worry?