Manhole Fire In New York VIDEOS: Flames Burst From Midtown Manholes

Manhole Fire In New York VIDEOS: Flames Burst From Midtown Manholes

An underground fire caused chaos in midtown Tuesday afternoon, sending flames into the streets, shutting down Broadway shows, and leaving hundreds of tourists without a place to stay.

At about 4:30 pm a transformer fire burnt three 13,000 volt cables, causing a three-alarm fire. Over a 130 firefighters rushed to the scene to put out the flames.

Amazingly, there were no reports of injuries.

Among the four buildings that had to be evacuated was the Novotel Hotel after high levels of carbon monoxide were detected in the basement.

FDNY Deputy Chief Jay Jonas told WPIX that the levels reached as high as 700 parts per million, which is enough to "kill someone with just a few breaths."

Tuesday night's performance of Jersey Boys was also canceled due to the fire.

The manhole explosion and subsequent fires were caught on tape by a number of cameras.

Amateur video of the manhole exploding:

Footage of firefighters trying to put out the flames:

More footage of people dodging as flames shoot out of a manhole:

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