Medford manhole fire causes outage, stalls traffic

From the Medford Transcript;
Medford - Fires ignited in manholes throughout the city Friday morning, leading to widespread power outages and street closings.

Deputy Chief Edward O’Brien of the Medford Fire Department said that multiple city officials were working to restore power, which was lost from Tufts University to Medford Square. He said the South Medford was the area hardest hit, where power could be out for “quite a while” while the problem is being addressed.

An underground cable failure was expected to be the cause of the problem, which led to power outages beginning at around 10 a.m.

According to a report by WCVB, city officials said the fire first broke out in a manhole at the corner of Emerson and Main streets, and flames and pressure from that fire caused a secondary explosion of a manhole at 101 Main St.

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