Home : News : Local : Marion County :

Crews work to fix a problem with power lines that caused an explosion of a manhole Wednesday morning. (WISH/Julian Grace)

Regular Photo Size5/5

Headlines from Marion County

Baby, kids left alone outside for hours

Small children left alone outside for at least six hours …

IPS proposes 160 more job cuts

The head of Indianapolis Public Schools will share his plan to …

Copied movies land man in jail

An Indianapolis man was arrested on fraud charges after police …

Downtown catacombs to open for tours

Indiana's architectural achievements aren't always what you see…

Museum uncovers hidden masterpiece

The Indiana State Museum wants to solve a mystery, and maybe …

Explosion triggers flaming manhole downtown

Updated: Wednesday, 27 Apr 2011, 5:20 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 27 Apr 2011, 6:49 AM EDT

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Crews will work into Wednesday night after downtown was jolted Wednesday morning by an explosion in a manhole near Illinois and West Washington streets.

The explosion occurred near the Conrad Hotel just before 6 a.m. Hotel employees called to report it. Firefighters who first arrived to the scene reported flames and smoke coming from the manhole.

No injuries were reported as a result of the explosion. Indianapolis Power and Light officials say a secondary underground line is causing the problem. Crews are replacing 900 feet of damaged cable on Court Street and repairing cable in a Meridian Street manhole. Road restrictions are likely through Wednesday night.

Several other manhole covers on Meridian Street had smoke coming from them Wednesday morning, Indianapolis Fire Department officials say. Local businesses, including Rock Bottom Brewery and the state Department of Health, reported smoke in their basements.

IPL shut off power in some parts of downtown for about an hour to do repair work.

It’s not the first time Indianapolis has seen manhole explosions. The last were on Jan. 30 in the 400 block of Massachusetts Avenue, at roughly 6:30 a.m. Five manhole covers blew off on that day.

Video below from WIBC via YouTube:

Comments

WISH-TV is migrating to a more stable commenting system called DISQUS. This system is used by CNN, TIME, FOX News, numerous blogging sites and has over 75 Million registrered users. Unfortunately we can't migrate our current user accounts to this new system.

To sign up for a DISQUS account, click the DISQUS button just below and to the right and then click Login.

DISQUS lets you login with several different options, including Facebook, Google, Twitter, Yahoo or OpenID. We expect it to allow more conversation and better moderation. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below.