SoHo Transformer Fire

Last night, a dramatic fireball outside a building at Mercer and Houston exploded five stories, but luckily no one was seriously hurt, save one pedestrian whose head was scorched. The transformer was located in a metal grate outside 172-174 Mercer, and Con Ed thinks the fire was caused by a power cable burning out. A witness told the NY Post, "A great big fireball from underground just lit up the whole side of the building. It looked like that guy was trying to jump out of the way, but the fireball expanded. It blossomed and just crawled up the side of the building and his clothes were all on fire." Yikes! The fire last 30 seconds and firefighters were able to douse it pretty quickly. The man had second degree burns and was taken to the burn unit at NY Presbytersian/Weill Cornell and is now in stable condition.