July 19, 2007
Midtown Steam Pipe Explosion:
Mayor Deems It a "Failure of City's Infrastructure"
During the Wednesday-night rush hour, a steam pipe at 41st Street and Lexington Avenue exploded, sending steam, mud, and pieces of the street hundreds of feet into the air. One person died and at least 20 people were injured.
Initially, many people's first reactions were that it was a terrorist attack, what with the loud, thunder-like rumbling that shook buildings and the cloud of smoke and steam. People ran from the area of the explosion, evacuating their buildings and Grand Central Terminal in a rush. But about a half hour after the explosion (the first 911 call was reported at 5:57PM), NYPD confirmed that it was not a terrorist attack. Many people likened it to a volcano.
During a press conference last night, Mayor Bloomberg explained that the 24" pipe that had been installed back in 1924 and that it may have exploded because it came into contact with cold water. He also took time to praise New Yorkers, saying, "We couldn’t be prouder of our New Yorkers. The people that should respond knew exactly what to do and how to cooperate and work together, and the person in the street understood that we’re all here together and they knew not to panic. They rushed around, helped each other. It's what you would expect; it’s inspirational to all of us."
Asbestos, a known carcinogen, was a concern of city officials, but tests have come back showing no asbestos in the air, though some is present in the debris. Regular visitors to the area are familiar with steam vents and Con Ed workers along Lexington Avenue - here's a photograph of one of those steam pipes. It's unclear what the exact cause is so far, but we're sure we'll find out once the investigation is completed.
The City has created a "frozen zone" - 40th Street to 43rd Street between Vanderbilt Avenue and Third Avenue - and will not allow people to enter the zone (though people already in the zone may leave): "As clean-up work progresses, the city will work to shrink the size of the frozen zone." And the city urges people not to visit the zone.
A crater about 15 feet by 25 feet in size was left after the explosion. The truck's driver is in a medically induced coma, with burns to 80% of his body. The school bus seen in the photographs belonged to Pierce Country Day Camp of Roslyn, L.I. - the Daily News reports "but luckily, the kids had been dropped off minutes earlier." The one fatality seems to be a woman who had a heart condition.
Subways, which were diverted last night, are running normally, with the exception of 4/5/6 and 7 service bypassing Grand Central and the S line being suspended. Buses with routes near the frozen zone are also affected. (Check MTA alerts here.)
The NY Times has an article on "Asbestos and Aging Pipes Remain Buried Hazards". One of our readers pointed out this was reminiscent of another deadly steam pipe explosion in Gramercy Park back in 1989.
Photograph at top by ~Raymond on Flickr; photograph at bottom of emergency responders inspecting the crater - and the red tow truck inside it - by Seth Wenig/AP
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Meanwhile in China: http://www.pr-inside.com/japan-says-met-with-north-korea-r177331.htm
Hope the the truck's driver makes it.
Meanwhile in Great Britian:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/north_yorkshire/6906107.stm
Mr. Mayor, get over your friendship (or whatever it is) with Burke and just say it like it is, a "Failure of Con Edison".
The Mayor's girlfriend used to work for a utility, KeySpan, so in his eyes utilities can probably do no wrong.
The world needs more hidden viking treasure hoards, and fewer steam explosions.
Is there some way that Andrew Cuomo can go after ConEd? How much money are they making and not putting back into little basic things like maintaining infrastructure?
How many people have to be killed and how much damage to the economy of the city, state, nation, and world has to be done by this company to get them either shut down or taken over by the state?
I'm actually surprised things like this don't happen more often in the city. Its old infrastructure. It isn't realistic to think anyone, ConED, or the city, can avoid all possible problems with infrastructure, all the time. Unfortunately, Shit happens.
I love all of the Monday morning QBing that goes on this site. Guess what people? Sometimes infrastructure fails!!! Do any of you even know the maintenance schedule of the steam pipes? Do they shut them down periodically and send a robot down to take pictures and x-ray for cracks? I don't know the answer to that but do any of you? Do any of you know how many miles of pipes there are and if it is even feasible to replace all of them? Seeing how it has taken over two years to work on the infrastructure under Wall Street - and they aren't done yet - you can imagine that "maintenance" the way you people envision it would be impossible. Nothing in life has 100% perfection.
how much damage to the economy of the city, state, nation, and world has to be done by this company to get them either shut down or taken over by the state?
Last night's damge to the economy? Infinitesimally small. But I love your screeching hyperbole. Really gives you credibility.
I'd love to know what most of you losers do for employment. Unless you have an engineering degree or do something where people's lives actually depend on you you should all shut up.
and HE wants to be president.
I blame HIM and his admins cozy dealings with corporations.
#9, what you don't understand is the Monday morning QBing is what makes this place all the better...
That's right guest - and unless we're nuclear engineers, we can't question nuclear power and whether events in Japan demonstrate that Indian Point should be closed because it's located on a fault, and unless we've graduated West Point we can't question the war and the war strategy, and unless we know about international trade we can't object to antifreeze in our toothpaste...Yup, guest, you just keep on trusting the experts. Shit does happen - but explosions like yesterday's should not, and the 'experts' should be held accountable.
Grrrr, the guests are angry today.
I hope the truck driver makes it as well, it seems amazing that so few people were injured.
And thanks to Gothamist for answering the question about the school bus, it was in all the video footage but didn't seem to get much coverage from what TV reporting I saw.
number nine is a giant whining loser. no one listens to him in real life so he bitches on the internet.
Alright. Everyone needs to come down and stop blaming me and Constantine and all our boys at Con Ed for this. Let's not rule out the possibility of a terrorist attack until all the facts come in. I mean think about it, doesn't Al Qaeda want you to think it was Con Ed. Seriously get off our backs. You people are lucky this doesn't happen more.
Pierce COUNTRY Day Camp, not County.
The typos keep on comin'!
Let's blame it all on the whining of Guest #9. Whining like we hear in #9 builds up and makes pipes explode. It's all your fault, #9!
Mr. Mayor, get over your friendship (or whatever it is) with Burke and just say it like it is, a "Failure of Con Edison".
Meh, shit happens when stuff is 100 years old. The city I used to live in was without water for five days when a 100 year old water-main burst. There, though, people didn't feel the need to turn everything into an attack on the city government (while, mostly, encouraging a plan that will put them on film at all times... but whatever).
We live in one of the oldest states in the country. Shit goes wrong sometimes... it's no reason to get huffy.
Terror attack? yeah... highly unlikely. no fire, no charred bodies.
Wouldn't it be a weird world if 83-year-old people just exploded?
The "shit Happens" excuse is why America and Americans are hated. No other country or culture has that phrase but selfish Americans.
there used to be this phrase, "until you walk in another man's shoes...".
#16, you are an idiot. It is obvious that this was a steam pipe explosion like Gramercy in 89. This was all handled well by the NYPD, FDNY and all other agencies except for of course the MTA. They provided no information to customers and when they did the annoucment said something like "the attack at Grand Central was not terrorist related". What? Thanks MTA for your National Security Estimate report, just tell me how the fuck I get to Metro North. Yesterday should go down as one of the most embarassing days for the MTA. It started out with the floods and when you ask an employee if the trains are running they tell you to go look! Useless, all of them.
[19] ... yeah. Shit does happen when stuff is 100 years old. Which is exactly why you perform preventative maintenance by replacing stuff before it gets to be 100 years old ... this is EXACTLY what we pay our utility bills, and taxes for.
I work at 40 and Park.
All I saw out the window were people fleeing as if from some movie monster. I felt a tremendous & ongoing earthquake-like rumbling, and saw huge plumes of smoke from a building.
In other words, I saw/heard/felt all I needed to see to get the hell out of there.
It's funny, no matter how steely-nerved you try to be, no matter how much you tell yourself that panic helps nothing, that kind of spectacle is flat-out nightmarish, makes your blood go cold and makes all the worst possible thoughts start to spin around in your head.
9/11 may be 6 years away, but emotionally it's much, much closer to us than we'd all like to admit.
Frozen zone or no, I'm working from home today.
TKaisen: What exactly is a reason to get huffy? Not to be shrill or an alarmist, but a woman is dead, and ConEd has a history (read: Queens blackout last summer) of having infrastructure problems that are caused by a lack of proper maintenance. So we're questioning, and we want an investigation that will give us answers. We just want to know if this is something that could/should have been foreseen (particularly since many people have said there has been a lot of ConEd activity right there), and if so, why was it not - was there a problem with bureaucracy, procedure or an individual that can be changed to prevent future problems or was this a freak accident? Asking the questions is not the same as getting huffy.
I wonder if the shit happens crowd also don't do any preventative maintenance on their personal vehicle.
I saw the panic, people were sprinting, leaving shoes behind, flat out run for your lives running.
Look at the eyes of those running, that's real.
What 23 and 25 said. Con Ed, the MTA and the NYC government cannot afford to be so lackadaisical about maintaining this city's infrastructure. It's amazing that more people weren't injured or killed. NYC taxes are among the highest in the country and this is what are we getting? Explosions and crappy F service.
Geez, a hundred year old pipe, you would think they would of used the rate increases to see if that pipe is still in good operating condition.
Do you let your brake fluid get low, hell you don't even let your coolant get low. I see drivers with their jugs of anti-freeze in their trunk.
shit happens? yeah, right.
At least as of about 10:30am, Lexington was completely blocked off from 38th to 45th.
[16] wrote:
No, generally speaking terrorists want you to know it was them.When I find a hidden viking treasure hoard, I'll donate half of the money I get for it to Con-ed..
Does anyone here know what steampipes do, specifically?
Did some call 911 and report this? How about OEM?
According to the MTA website, 4,5,6,7 and S service are all now stopping at Grand Central.
Does anybody know if it's on time or delayed?
The "shit Happens" excuse is why America and Americans are hated. No other country or culture has that phrase but selfish Americans.
You're an idiot. This doesn't even make sense.
Outter Burrougher: Not to be shrill or an alarmist, but a woman is dead, and ConEd has a history (read: Queens blackout last summer) of having infrastructure problems that are caused by a lack of proper maintenance.
Because you can't prevent everything. It's really that simple. We're living on a system built before all of us were born. It's going to fail from time to time.
As much as the city and state government would like you to believe otherwise, you can't regulate accidents. If you want an investigation, fine... there should be one and they should do what they can to prevent this stuff from happening. But people who want to turn it into a political thing are idiots... sorry. This would have happened regardless of who was in office.
It's funny 2c how many of you are so clueless. Very funny.
#32-Steam is a by-product of Con-Ed's electricity generation at the plants. The excess steam is carried throughout the city in pipes. The steam is used in the winter to provide heat to buildings and in the summer the steam helps to power many AC units and used by a number of other industries. It is also used in that stupid clock scuplture in Union Square.
If you don't see then you're the problem.
karma will kum bak. it always does.
Smith and wesson is not the great equalizer but Karma is.
asbestos poisoning is not a good way to die. You're dead before the suit goes to trial.
I'm just glad it was a steam pipe and not a sewage pipe - otherwise we would've had a veritable shitstorm.
I survived Pipe Explosion 2007!!!!1 w00t
TKaisen, you seem to be a con-ed employee, or a wooden-headed dolt; Possibly both.
While it may be true that "not every accident is preventable", this one clearly was, as was the blackout of last summer ... the reason that we are living over a system that was "built before all of us were born" is because CON-ED is not doing it's job, which is to maintain the energy delivery infrastrucuture of this city. It's not reasonable to expect that there will be minor mishaps throughout the city on an ongoing basis, but it is entirely within reasonable expectations that CON-ED will not neglect to replace high-pressure steam piping before it becomes a CENTURY old. And no, this would not have happened if they had either replaced the pipe, reinforced it, or re-routed the steam to a newer more reliable pipe -- and it is con-ed's JOB to do that.
In retrospect, I doubt you're a con-ed employee, con-ed is far too arrogant to stoop to astroturf pr, I sincerely doubt they give a shit.
ConEd is negligient.
sewage pipes are very far down in the ground, below water pipes. if a sewage pipe burst, it's unlikely the street level would ever know.
My dear god, has anyone ever had a steam burn before? It's horrible, and dare I say more painful than other types of burns. I can't believe that the driver of that truck has 80 percent of his body burned by (I'm assuming) steam. That has to be absolutely unbearable, the poor, poor man.
I shudder to think. It's no wonder they put him in a medically induced coma. Tragic.
you're right again, mihow.
we should all pray (for those who pray) for this man.
oh come on, is anyone surprised? Things are getting worse in this city, not better, the infrastructure is falling apart. NYC is a 20th century city, the 21st has begun and NYC will be left behind. So pay up or shut up.
Hey Jen,
Great post, tragic that NY was the victim again. Everyone is saying the age of the pipes is to blame, but not necessarily the case. America indeed has old, and sometimes deteriorating infrastructure, but it can be treated to last as long as the Roman ruins.
Check out some of our thoughts on www.matcor.blogspot.com. We have an expert in infrastructure and corroding pipes/structures who has seen this stuff all over the world.
Thanks,
Mike