Many Customers Still Without Power After Underground Fire in Old City, PECO Says
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Dramatic video shows flames pouring out of a manhole in Old City. The fire broke out just after 1 a.m. at the intersection of 4th and Market Streets on Saturday.
The underground fire is still having ripple effects as pockets of the neighborhood remain without power nearly 24 hours after the explosion happened. PECO crews are on scene trying to restore power.
People showed up looking for a history lesson but instead, they got a lesson in modern technology.
"We wanted to come here and we can't," Jackie Feola, who lives nearby, said.
Feola is hosting friends from Buffalo, New York, for the weekend. The plan was to come to the Benjamin Franklin Museum, but less than one block away at the corner of 4th and Market Streets Friday night a massive explosion and subsequent fire in a manhole knocked the power out.
"We were going to go around, we were going to go to the Ben Franklin building," Sarah Christensen, who's visiting from Buffalo, said. "We were going to go see the Liberty Bell. We wanted to print out the constitution and now we can't do that, so it's disappointing."
A representative with PECO says the explosion happened at about 1:15 a.m. Saturday. The fire was under control within an hour and a half.
But at mid-Saturday afternoon, a block away, signs at the National Museum of American Jewish History say the museum is closed because it has no power. A massive generator was brought in to power the museum until power is restored.
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"It does [ruin plans] a little bit," Christensen said, "but there's a ton to do in Philadelphia so we'll find something else to do."
"I think we're going to go to Independence Beer Garden and get a beer," Feola said.
The Gummers, who are in town from Washington, D.C., say they'll walk around before heading to Citizens Bank Park on Saturday night.
"We're actually here to see the Washington Nationals play the Phillies tonight," Nicole Gummer said.
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No one was injured in the fire.
Crews are still investigating the cause of the explosion.
PECO does not have a time frame for when power will be fully restored but says the number has been reduced from 400 to 20 customers.
CBS3's Howard Monroe reports.
