Power in Newark nearly restored after manhole fire

NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) -- Power has been restored mostly in Newark after a manhole fire Thursday caused a outage downtown that affected various buildings, and prompted Rutgers-Newark and NJIT to cancel some classes.

At 8:15 a.m. Friday, PSE&G said it had restored two Rutgers University buildings and another at NJIT. The only building still on generator power was the NJIT library.

St. Michael's Medical Center was transferring back to utility power as well; it had been using a generator.

Authorities said a cable failed in a manhole at University Place and Bleecker Street just before 1:30 a.m. Thursday, sparking the fire.

St. Michael's Hospital, Prudential's downtown headquarters and PSE&G headquarters lost power.

By noon Thursday, PSE&G crews had restored power to four of the 11 customers affected by the outage. They included World Comm, Macy's building, Time Equities and the PSE&G headquarters.

Rutgers canceled all classes Thursday in the affected buildings, including Aidekman, Boyden, Conklin, Life Sciences Center and Olson. Classes in other buildings continued as usual.

Dana Library also remained closed through the evening, and power remained out in the Woodward and Talbott residence halls.