New York plunged into darkness after power cut due to power plant 'explosion'

15 December 2023 , 09:06

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New York plunged into darkness after power cut due to power plant 'explosion'

A major Brooklyn power cut meant firefighters had to rescue people across New York City - after residents heard an “explosion” at a power plant.

Black smoke was seen rising from the Con Edison plant after a fault at 11:55pm on Thursday, temporarily plunging New York into chaotic darkness. Reports emerged of people stuck in the subway and trapped in elevators for almost 20 minutes, with footage showing the dramatic rescue of a security guard at a Brooklyn Wegmans store from an elevator.

Con Edison says a faulty power line at its John Street, Dumbo facility was the cause of the outage - but that everything is up and running once again. Power cuts spread across the city just after midnight on Friday with plumes of smoke rising above the Big Apple. Some residents said they heard an “explosion” at the power plant while others claim to have felt a rumble at the time of the fault.

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Emergency services gathered at the power plant to see what was going on (PhilWalkable/Twitter)

Lights struggled through the outage, flickering across neighbourhoods including Downtown Brooklyn, Bed-Stuy, Lower Manhattan, the Upper East Side and Long Island City - with all elevators and escalators at Grand Central Station also put out of service. New York City Fire Department and New York Police Department officers were at scenes across the city, including at the Con Edison plant.

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An investigation into the power line fault is underway by crews at the Con Edison plant, with the issue believed to be a faulty “high-tension transmission line”, according to a spokesperson at the energy company. “Customers may have experienced a dip or surge in power at that time. Crews are investigating and working to make necessary repairs,” they added to DailyMail.com.

A crew from Con Edison is currently investigating the fault (sts423/Twitter)

Black smoke was seen rising from the facility (sts423/Twitter)

A fire department spokesperson said there were calls across the city due to outages. “We don’t have a single address that we can narrow it down to. There has been reports and calls at various locations,” they said.

Power outages on the subway left commuters stuck underground for around 20 minutes without any announcements or explanation of what was going on. Grand Central elevators and escalators were all out of service after power went down momentarily twice in the space of 15 minutes in the station.

Some residents said they felt a "rumble" while others thought they heard an "explosion" (Google)

Residents across New York were anxious to know what was going on during the widespread outages. “My mom and I were just talking in the kitchen and the lights momentarily went out. We both just stared at each other and wondered what the hell happened. Thanks for scaring me to hell and back ConEd,” one resident wrote on X.

“NYC power outage just happened while I was halfway through the new Netflix movie Leave the World Behind. Wife and I are freaked the f** out,” said another, while a third asked: “So all of us in NYC suddenly got a power outage??”

Alex Croft