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Q&A
Questions about manhole explosion incident and communication issues
1:46:30
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Council Member Lincoln Restler raises concerns about a manhole explosion incident in Brooklyn Heights and the lack of follow-up communication from FDNY and Con Edison. The incident occurred on Thanksgiving Day, four months prior, despite community members reporting smoke from the manhole five days before the explosion.
- FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker and Chief of Department John Esposito acknowledge the issue and promise to follow up with more information.
- The discussion highlights the challenges of aging infrastructure and the need for improved communication between the FDNY and local communities.
- Restler emphasizes the importance of providing timely information to constituents following such incidents.
Lincoln Restler
1:46:30
Thanks so much, Chiariola.
1:46:32
Oh, maybe too excited.
1:46:36
Thank you commissioner and team.
1:46:37
Good to see you all today.
1:46:38
I have a few random questions.
1:46:41
I just want to start with a parochial one, which is we had a tragic fire in our district on Thanksgiving Day, so four months ago.
1:46:54
This was a manhole explosion on Remsen Street in Brooklyn Heights, some of you may remember.
1:46:59
Firstly, just want to thank the men and women of the FDNY for showing up on a holiday and keeping our community safe.
1:47:07
What bothered me though about this particular incident was five days before, members of our community reached out to the FDNY to come and investigate because there was smoke coming out of the manhole.
1:47:22
FDNY came right away, closed it out.
1:47:24
Five days later, manhole explodes, sets a car on fire, blows through an apartment building.
1:47:29
People still haven't been able to move back into their homes.
1:47:31
Fortunately, nobody was killed, but it was a terrible incident.
1:47:35
And I've essentially gotten pats on the head and radio silence from Con Ed and FDNY in the intervening four months.
1:47:44
Members of the community want to get answers on what happened and why.
1:47:49
I understand that it takes some time for the fire marshals to provide a report, but it's very frustrating to not be able to say anything to my community about what happened here and what we're doing about it to make sure that the community is safe because we've had other fires in Brooklyn Heights ever relating to other manholes that I do not believe were related but have freaked everybody out.
1:48:09
So a, how do we get answers more quickly in general?
1:48:13
And b, is there anything that you can say about this specific incident or who I can follow-up with to get answers in the immediate future?
Robert Tucker
1:48:21
I'm gonna ask our chief of department to address the specific Thanksgiving Day incident and then of course we'll figure out how you can get answers more quickly from us on a going forward basis.
John Esposito
1:48:38
In an aging city with the infrastructure as old as it is, manhole fires unfortunately are a common occurrence.
1:48:47
We do work together with Con Edison to respond and mitigate them.
1:48:51
The specifics of the Thanksgiving Day, other than the fact of where the fire broke out, which was unusual for us in our experience, we'd have to defer to Bureau of Fire and Investigation get their report and see if we're able to share that.
Robert Tucker
1:49:09
The chief fire marshal's not here, but I will meet with the chief fire marshal today, and we'll get back to you on that.
Lincoln Restler
1:49:17
I really appreciate it.