Another manhole cover blows in Morristown; woman injured

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A manhole cover blew at the intersection of James and South streets in Morristown around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, burning the arm of a woman who was in her car, according to authorities and eyewitnesses.

“It was just a matter of time” before someone got hurt by these recurring manhole incidents, said Mayor Tim Dougherty, who just two hours earlier was praising Jersey Central Power & Light at its Morris Township offices for its efforts to restore power in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene.

The injured woman, whose identity was not released, sustained a steam burn to her arm and was taken to Morristown Medical Center, said Morristown EMS Capt. Dominick Sandelli. The injury was not life-threatening, he said.

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JCP&L spokesman Ron Morano said the incident was caused by a switch failure that was unrelated to the Irene restoration efforts. Those efforts are continuing, he said.

As we reported via Twitter and Facebook from the scene, area residents and workers instantly knew something was wrong.

‎”We thought it was another earthquake,” said Jackie Miao, who lives in the 181 South apartments, near the intersection where the blast occurred.

“I heard a big boom,” said Ellen Zanetti, who was a block away on Maple Avenue. “It was too big for a (car) crash. It sounded like a D-3 dozer banged its blade on the ground. The ground shook a little.”

Kristen Wedderburn, the Mayor’s secretary, was in her fourth floor office at the time.

“There was a loud bang, just like all the other times,” Kristen said. It sounded “like when the back of a truck drops its tailgate.”

Moments after the incident, wispy black smoke could be seen wafting from the manhole. The heavy iron cover was off to the side.

“It was spinning black smoke when it came up, like a cylinder, like a tornado,” said Morristown resident Chris Lipper, who had just left a nearby chiropractor’s office. From his car he had heard a “deep rumbling that lasted a couple of seconds. There was no question it was an explosion.”

Over the years the downtown has had a series of manhole explosions and underground utility fires.  An underground electrical vault caught fire outside Rite-Aid on South Street in June. Another manhole cover spewed smoke this winter at Maple and Market. A massive explosion at the Morristown & Township Library in May 2010 remains unsolved.

At a press conference earlier on Wednesday, the mayors of Morristown and Morris Township appeared with Don Lynch, president of JCP&L, who expressed hopes that service would be restored to most customers in both towns by the evening.

Mayor Dougherty made reference to the recurring problems with Morristown’s underground system, and said relations with the utility had improved and cooperation has been excellent throughout the Irene outage.

Wednesday’s manhole blast did not appear to affect the Irene restoration efforts, the Mayor said. Power was not lost in the vicinity of the manhole, according to the utility.

The Mayor said he will follow up with Don Lynch to ensure that JCP&L “keeps investing in our network” to improve safety.

South Street was closed between Hamilton and Madison streets, and cars were detoured from James Street onto Maple Avenue during the evening rush hour because of the manhole blast.

Don Lynch had said some 1,700 employees have been working to restore power to two-thirds of JCP&L’s customers who lost power during the storm. A crew arrived at the Morristown scene about 40 minutes after the explosion.

READ MORE ABOUT IRENE

Smoke wafts from manhole at South and James streets, minutes after cover blew off, injuring a motorist with steam. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Smoke wafts from manhole at South and James streets, minutes after cover blew off, injuring a motorist with steam. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

4 COMMENTS

  1. Once again … it’s another explosion in Morristown. Folks, there is nothing to see here… Don’t worry. Don’t ask questions. You can all go home now. This will never happen again!

  2. Yet we’ll still have those defending the poor excuse for a utility company that is JCP&L. Power outages, 4 days of no power, multiple exlplosion under major streets. It’s a quality company that’s controlling a major part of our lives.

  3. JCP&L says it’s not affecting efforts to restore power, but reality half of Morris Township is now without power. Way to go guys, way to go. South Street has been inexplicably exploding since the mid 90’s. Makes you wonder if they ever plan on fixing it.

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