Crews battle transformer fire on East Williamsburg street amid carbon monoxide evacuation; 2 injured
EAST WILLIAMSBURG, Brooklyn (WABC) -- It took FDNY crews about seven hours to get the upper hand on a raging fire shooting out a of transformer vault in Brooklyn on Wednesday morning.
Over 200 residents were evacuated from a seven-story building at 101 Humboldt Street after initial reports of carbon monoxide.
Medics also rushed at least two people to the hospital.
Crews were called around 3:30 a.m. for reports of smoke coming out of a manhole. That's when officials say firefighters detected high levels of carbon monoxide in the building.
The situation escalated to a gas leak, which prompted the evacuations of nearly 200 people as smoke turned into flames and scorched two parked cars around 5:15 a.m.
Ruben Burgos drove two hours to make sure his 80-year-old dad was OK. Fortunately he was, but safety concerns are mounting.
"One confusing thing to me was everybody has carbon monoxide tests, not one went off in the building," Burgos said.
Burgos said he is just thankful the outcome wasn't worse.
"Carbon monoxide is a silent killer, so what happens if it happens again? You're just thinking are we safe?" said one resident.
The fire burned for hours as crews tried to extinguish the flames and prevent it from spreading by hosing down nearby buildings.
Crews were able to turn off the valves that feed the gas line underground, but the challenge was dealing with the residual gas.
Authorities are investigating what sparked the fire and are looking into potential weather-related causes.
"During the winter months with the salt on the ground, we do get the electric utilities get affected with Con Edison and we're all overloaded with work -- that may have had a factor as far as the wires compromising, but that hasn't escalate the situation after the initial problem," said FDNY Battalion Chief Barry Leguernic.
The Red Cross is assisting the residents who had to be evacuated.
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