Queens buildings experienced outages after dump truck hits power lines

QUEENS, N.Y, (WABC) -- A dump truck took down power lines in a South Richmond neighborhood Tuesday morning, sparking power outages on several streets.

There was fire, smoke, and snapping power lines on 131st Street at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in South Richmond Hill, Queens.

Residents woke up, heard the noise, and just stood there in disbelief.

"Just fire everywhere, the whole place on fire," said Shameer Khan, a resident.

"Above your head basically?" Eyewitness News asked

"Yeah, basically and all the wires just snapped, they came off," Khan said.

Miraculously, no one was injured when an asphalt truck was stopped at the corner of 131st and Liberty Avenue, and the truck's dumpster inexplicably went up, taking a whole lot with it.

Police, Emergency Management, and Con Ed were on scene throughout the day, and so was the driver of the truck.

"Sir, I know you're having a very bad day. We're just trying to figure out what happened. Can you tell us anything? I mean it's kind of a disaster, luckily no one was hurt," Eyewitness News said.

"I got nothing to say, sorry," the driver said.

Residents on at least two blocks were without power during the scorching afternoon Tuesday, as crews sifted through mangled wire, snipping and removing the scorched lines. Businesses too got "burned".

"It hurt the businesses, very majorly in fact, most of these guys have got very little business, because there is no traffic flow," said Vishnu Mahedeo, a South Richmond Community Activist.