Volume 16 • Issue 42 | March 19 – 25, 2004
Police blotter
Con Ed manhole smoke
Firefighters responded to a smoking Con Edison manhole at Greenwich and Albany Sts. opposite the American Stock Exchange at 9 a.m. Thurs. March 18. A fire department spokesperson said the incident was minor and that firefighters were finished at the site a half hour later. Con Edison attributed the trouble to an underground cable that appeared to have been damaged by salt used to melt snow and ice on the street. There were no outages and no impact on utility customers, according to Joy Haber, a Con Edison spokesperson.
The incident followed an explosion and fire in a Con Edison manhole on Avenue B near E. 12th St. in the East Village on Tuesday night, March 16, which resulted in the temporary evacuation of several buildings after Con Edison cut power while making repairs. A fire department spokesperson said the Avenue B fire broke out at 8:30 p.m. and spread to an electrical box in the basement of 183 Avenue B where it caused an explosion that knocked down a firefighter. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital and treated for minor injuries.
The March 18 incident Downtown was the latest in a series that began on Jan. 16 when an East Village woman was killed by stray voltage from a Con Edison electric service box on E. 11th St. at First Ave. Then on March 9, two dogs were injured by stray voltage from a Con Edison service box at St. Marks Pl. at First Ave.
East River rescue
Harbor police responded to a report on Thursday afternoon, March 11 of someone in the water under the Brooklyn Bridge and rescued a 24-year-old man. The victim, identified only as Asian, was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition for observation.
Postal dereliction
Police arrested a U.S. Postal Service carrier on Elizabeth St. near a dumpster on Friday afternoon March 12 outside the Fifth Precinct police station after he was observed peeling the address labels off telephone books in order to drop them off in the lobby of a building instead of delivering each one individually. The Postal Service charged the carrier, Kenny Liu, 49, with official misconduct.
—Albert Amateau
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