HOLYOKE — More than 440 Holyoke Gas & Electric customers were without power in the downtown area of Holyoke on Saturday morning after a fire ignited in an underground utility vault.
Holyoke firefighters responded to the Holyoke Gas & Electric Department building, located at 99 Suffolk St., at around 1 a.m. for alarms sounding. While staging fire engines in front of the building, an explosion blew manhole covers on Suffolk and Chestnut streets several feet into the air, said Fire Capt. Kevin Cavagnac. Subsequently, Ivory Billiards, located at 151 Chestnut St., was evacuated and the area surrounding it was secured by the city’s Police Department.
“A cable fault was the heat source inside the underground vault,” Cavagnac said. “The cable insulation burned causing smoke to build up in the vault. Once the super heated smoke pressurized the vault enough to lift the manhole cover, the air outside mixed with the smoke, causing a smoke explosion.”
Following the explosion, fire and smoke billowed from a manhole in front of the Holyoke Gas & Electric building and the Fire Department requested HG&E to eliminate the power to the equipment in the underground vault, Cavagnac said. The smoke and fire subsided prior to HG&E’s arrival to the scene.
“The fire was electrical in nature, so we do not approach or try to extinguish it unless it impinges on something combustible. These underground utility vaults are designed to contain a fire, and the fire inside burnt itself out before the HG&E arrived to kill the power,” he said. “There was a haze of smoke inside the basement of the (HG&E) building, which we evacuated using battery powered fans.”
Power was cut off to the area from Suffolk to Lyman streets, including street and traffic lights.
The outage began at 8:20 a.m. while crews from the energy company made repairs, according to a Facebook post from Holyoke Gas & Electric. Though originally delayed, the Scotch Doubles Tournament at Ivory Billiards, which had 50 teams signed up according to the pool hall, is still taking place.
Power was restored to all customers in the area by 11:21 a.m. No injuries were reported.
Emily Thurlow can be reached at ethurlow@gazettenet.com.
