By Brigette Namata
Published: August 30, 2015
HONOLULU, HAWAII
An underground electrical fire shut down a good portion of downtown Sunday morning.
The Honolulu Fire Department, Honolulu Police Department, and HECO crews initially responded to reports of thick black smoke streaming out of two manholes.
An hour later into the incident, witnesses on the street were stunned by an explosion when a plume of fire quickly shot out through a manhole cover on the corner of Bishop and Hotel streets.
“It was very loud. It caught us all off guard,” said HPD Sergeant Maya Brouwer.
“And then BOOM!,” said witness Louise Rosa. “It was getting blacker and blacker and blacker. Then all the cops came and they told us to move to the side.”
Luckily, no one got hurt.
“We’ve shut down the entire block, buses were diverted, as well as pedestrians, for safety,” said Brouwer.
The underground electrical fire shut downtown from Fort Street Mall to Richards Street starting at 10 a.m. Most of the surrounding businesses were closed.
HECO said 915 customers lost power because of the explosion.
A spokeswoman said this was a circuit-related fire.
Crews were unable to go underground into the manhole to investigate until 3:15 p.m. because the smoke, fumes, heat and confined space made for a dangerous situation.
They discovered that an electrical short in a cable caused the fire.
Crews re-routed power to a majority of customers by 4:30 p.m. and are continuing to work on finishing repairs.