An explosion sent a manhole cover flying into the air on a Massachusetts sidewalk.
The circular manhole cover surrounded by a square frame shot eight to ten feet in the air Monday afternoon along busy Massachusetts Avenue in downtown Lexington.
Nobody was injured, but one car parked on Mass. Ave. did get a small dent.
“It’s in the middle of a sidewalk...it could have been a tragedy...but luckily no on was around when it happened,” Lexington Fire Department Captain Mark Ferreira said.
Smoke coming from the manhole prompted firefigthers to get to the scene to check it out.
“On our arrival, companies had smoke coming out of the manhole, and once they arrived the cover actually blew off,” Capt. Ferreira said.
At a time when everyone is extra sensitive to underground issues following last month’s gas line explosions in the Merrimack Valley, Eversource says this was an electrical issue involving a transformer which caused a small fire and the explosion.
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Power was knocked out to 148 customers for part of the afternoon. Everyone who was without it now has it back on.
