Photos: Manhole Fire Immolates Parked Cars In Boerum Hill, Leads To Power Outages

A manhole fire in Brooklyn caused several cars to burst into flames along a residential block of Boerum Hill this afternoon, leading to ongoing power outages for at least 100 nearby residents, authorities said.

A spokesperson for the fire department said they were informed of the blaze at around 12:30 p.m. on Friday. An eyewitness video from the scene shows multiple cars shooting up in flames adjacent to the P.S. 138 elementary school.

There were no injuries as a result of the fire, which was extinguished shortly after firefighters arrived on the scene, a spokesperson for the FDNY said. To be safe, residents were urged not to leave their homes.

"These two parked cars looked like Godzilla stepped on them," Charles Yuen, a neighborhood resident who stumbled onto the aftermath of the fire, told Gothamist.

"It was weird how the two cars were decimated without affecting any neighboring cars," he added. "Note the bike next to one of the cars, which may have been upset by a fireman, if not the explosion.

A spokesperson for ConEd told Gothamist that the fire was the result of a "failure on the underground electrical delivery equipment," likely related to the recent cold snap and the city's preparations for a storm.

"What often happens is that melting snow and ice and salt get into the system and the wiring, leading to a buildup of gases and heat, and consequently a manhole fire," the spokesperson added. (Yes, we've seen this movie before.)

He estimated that the power outages are expected to last for another six to eight hours.