NYC explosion: City Peeps please report in!

According to NY1 News -

An explosion in Midtown sent plumes of smoke into the sky this evening and caused the evacuation of buildings in the area.

The fire department is saying that the source of the smoke is a transformer explosion at 370 Lexington Avenue. Sources say the area surrounding 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue has been closed off.

Officials say the attack is not terrorist related.

The five-alarm fire is causing Number 4, 5, and 6 trains to bypass Grand Central Station.

Emergency crews are on the scene. There are no words yet of injuries.

 

Holy Crap!!!

Ok first I get up 5AM to get to LGA to take the NY - DC shuttle for a marathon round of meetings. As I am walking up the ramp past security I hear that the 7:30 has been cancelled then the 8:30, and then 9:30. So they then put us on a plane and after sitting for an hour, they finally let us back off the plane. Then at 9 they reboard us, only to tell us that there is a 70% chance that the plane is going nowhere once it pushes back from the gate. So I tell my sales guy to go down without me and I hop off. He ends up getting down in DC 3 hours late!

I'm thinking I'll just go home, but somehow in the interim I manage to leave my cell phone in the cab! I have to call the cabby (I kept calling my $600 iPhone till he picked up) only to have to pay him $10 for the luxury of returning my property. Just when I think it can't get any worse, I decide to go pick up my wife from a meeting at NYU and our route home: right under GCS. It's a good thing I didn't have like 18 cups of coffee today and didn't almost piss myself!

Anyway we heard a massive "BOOOM" and a huge cloud of like brown! If we had been 5 minutes behind, we would've been caught behind it! Crazy!!

All I need is a midget to come over and kick me in the balls, then my day will be complete.

 

Damn Nabbs crazy story!! I'm glad you weren't involved in what sounds like a pretty big mess.

 

why do all your stories always have midgets interacting with your balls....

 

i was driving up 8th and was stuck in traffic and felt/heard the boom... anyway i had to pick up my girlfriend at times square and when i turned onto 42nd (i know, bad idea) there was a wall of people running right at me and a huge plume of steam/smoke covering the far end of the street. also i've never seen so many emergency vehicles.

from the pictures i've seen it looks like a big explosion i hope everyone was ok!

 

It's all about midget strippers with c-section scars and really bad psoriasis.

 

I was in the city from 4p-8p and man it was a little bit messy. Thankfully I was downtown when this happened.

 

I live downtown, and was getting my car out of the garage for the night. I wondered why traffic was extra packed, and heard it when i turned on 1010 AM

 

sounds like a lotttt of stress> u mite need to puff one up

 

Just took a look at the report on the news, WOW! Glad I wasnt near that.

 

things that shocked me about this post:

1- you listen to 1010 winns?! Should I send you a complimentary AARP card?

2- you have an AM radio and you regularly use it.

3- you are back in the chitty and you have not asked to go for a ride and fasten the seatbelt @ 100mph.

 

Of course, this being New York, I'm sure you could have that arranged!

 

Welcome back in NYC Emilie! Too bad I don't live there anymore, would have been nice to see you again with the group... Hope you're well. Let me know if you're ever in Philly!

 

how would you know

 

1010 winns is great for news/information.

You give them 22 minutes, they give you the world.

 

and the most listened to station in the nation....

 

My wife works on 42 & Madison and said on the 32 floor and said when the pipe exploded everyone thought it was thunder... but then it just kept on rumbling and rumbling...

I was actually surprised I wasn't there for this mishap as I'm generally there when stuff goes boom in NYC.

 

I got to watch it all happen outside the 25th floor windows in my office on 58th and Lex - wish I had a camera with me but here's one from NYTimes.com:
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Hey Jawad! Looong time no see!

1/2. lol my pops beat me for all the right reasons (j.k)

3. As soon as i got in to NY, i turned around and drove halfway back to effn detroit to do Watkins Glen with the guys! I wouldve made that midnight run if i hadnt spent all of friday night waiting to get across the gddmn GW bridge.

That seatbelt issue was too damn funny. I guess GM figures that at 100+ the passenger has given up

 

wow. I watched it on the news for a while last night.

 

That's a really unpleasant visual...