BALTIMORE, MD (Friday, January 26, 2024) — Late on Thursday, January 25, 2024, the Baltimore City Fire Department, Baltimore City Police Department, Baltimore City Office of Emergency Management, Baltimore City DOT, and BGE all responded to a scene in the 300 block of N. Charles Street, for reports of an underground fire, multiple manhole smoke emissions, and possible manhole explosions.
Initial assessments revealed smoke coming from multiple manholes covers and fire emitting from one manhole cover. Fire companies on scene utilized water and dry chemical extinguisher to extinguish any visible fire.
Initial assessments showed the fire impacted underground electrical conduits along N. Charles Street.
Power was shut down to businesses and residences to a radius around the 300 and 400 block of N. Charles Street to assist in extinguishing the fire, which could only be accomplished once power was off. The outage is affecting the downtown area in the general grid of Centre Street./ Liberty Street./ St. Paul Street/ Fayette Street.
The main Mercy Hospital facility remained largely unaffected, however several of their garages and buildings went without power for a period. There are also several city buildings that were impacted by the outage, with essential buildings running on emergency power.
For a short period around 1:00 a.m. ET, the outage impacted emergency service communications, including 9-1-1 dispatch. During the communications interruption, the new emergency service radio system allowed both BPD and BCFD to easily switch to alternatives, utilizing surrounding jurisdictions and state-wide channels. Emergency services continue to utilize those alternatives, due to ongoing intermittent interruptions. There is currently no disruption to the 9-1-1 call handling process.
BCFD and BGE crews are continuing to work together to cycle power through the impacted electrical conduits and address any potential residual fire flare-ups.
At present, threats to the public have been mitigated and crews will continue working to restore power through the early hours of the morning.
There will continue to be a number of traffic modifications due to crews operating in the 200, 300, and 400 blocks of N. Charles Streets between Baltimore and W. Mulberry Street.
Traffic in this vicinity will be interrupted into the morning hours, likely to significantly impact downtown commutes.
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