New York –
“A Con Edison transformer caught fire under Middagh Street near Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights on Saturday just before 8 p.m., popping a large square manhole cover and sending a dangerous buildup of carbon monoxide into two nearby residential buildings…Firefighters detected potentially deadly carbon monoxide levels in the two residential buildings and requested that Con Edison shut off power…Underground cable fires like these burn in low-oxygen vaults, and research published by Fire Engineering explains that the oxygen-deprived combustion of rubber cable jacketing produces concentrated carbon monoxide, which can migrate through subterranean conduits and ductwork directly into adjacent basements. Standard FDNY protocols call for mandatory room-by-room sweeps and mechanical building ventilation whenever smoke migration or elevated indoor carbon monoxide accompanies a transformer fire.”