Transformer Fire Leaves 310 Greenwich St. Without Power

by Ronald Drenger

An electrical fire in an underground vault in front of the Food Emporium on March 12 forced the Greenwich Street supermarket to close and cut off power and water to the 39-story residential building at 310 Greenwich Street, above the store, for nearly six hours.

		The fire was detected when smoke began pouring out of sidewalk grates that cover the vault, which contains several Con Edison electricity transformers. Because of the proximity to the residential tower, which is part of the Independence Plaza complex, about a dozen Fire Department vehicles, including at least six fire trucks, responded. The fire was contained within the vault and did not threaten either the residential building or the supermarket. But several tenants were stuck in elevators at 310 Greenwich Street and needed to be rescued by firefighters, according to Deputy Chief Richard Howe of the Fire Department’s Division 1. The fire caused a brief power outage at Borough of Manhattan Community College, tripping the school¹s fire alarms and leading to the evacuation of an estimated 7,000 students, faculty and staff, according to a BMCC spokeswoman.
The fire was put out within an hour, but tenants at 310 Greenwich Street were left without electricity or water until about 3 p.m.. At around noon, a handful of elderly residents sat in chairs in the lobby waiting for elevator service to be restored so they could return to their apartments. “A firefighter said he didn’t know how long it will be,” said Mannig Kasparian, who lives on the 10th floor, as who waited patiently in the lobby.

“I just want to get into my apartment,” said another resident, who said she lives on the fifth floor but declined to give her name. Marie Perrette, who lives on the 30th floor, and her 85-year-old mother, Fay Verra, a 27th-foor tenant, sat side by side, holding flashlights and snacking from a bag of nuts. Verra had been monitoring Environmental Protection Agency contractors who were cleaning her daught er’s apartment, and Perrete was at a doctor’s appointment, when the fire caused the power outage. “When I came back, I saw the smoke outside and I walked up 30 flights of stairs to get her,” Perrette said. “We got her medicine from her apartment, and then we walked down together.” “It’s scary up there,” Verra said. “There were no lights, no water and no phones. I’d rather be here. We’ll just wait for the duration.”
Power and water had gone out in 310 Greenwich following the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, and Anna Roina, 64, who was in her apartment at the time, at first thought the neighborhood was again under seige. “It’s like living it all over again when this happens,” she said Con Edison and Fire Department officials could not immediately say what caused the transformer fire. Transformers convert electricity coming from a power substation into a current that can be handled by residential and commercial buildings.