Manhole fires wipe out power in Boston
Headaches galore downtown; outage also closes RMV
An underground cable running through Stuart and Tremont streets caught fire early yesterday, causing flames and smoke to billow from at least three manholes and forcing
Power was out for about five hours beginning shortly after 5:30 a.m., and caused headaches for morning commuters, businesses, and government offices. No one was injured in the mishap.
The outage, however, knocked out the Registry of Motor Vehicle's computer system, forcing closure of all 35 branches statewide for the day.
Two Boston schools were closed, businesses along Stuart and Tremont streets were dark, and traffic lights at 40 intersections went down.
By late morning, NStar, which had shut down the electricity to stop the fire, had the power back on, but that did not help dozens of people who tried to get into the Boston branch of the RMV on Washington Street.
"Oh no, oh man," grumbled one young man who went to the door and saw a sign saying the office was closed.
A tall, broad-shouldered security guard in sunglasses stood in the doorway of the building, sipping coffee and blocking access to the office.
"It's closed," he said sternly to dismayed customers. "Computers are down."
Madelin Figueroa, who lost her wallet last week, went yesterday to the RMV hoping to get a new identification card.
"Wonderful, wonderful," she said as she looked at the closed door. "Where do I go now?"
She considered asking the guard, but quickly changed her mind.
"He looks like he is in a bad mood," she said.
Ann Dufresne, spokeswoman for the RMV, said the computer servers that provide access to the RMV database are inside the state Transportation Building, which lost power.
Backup generators immediately kicked in and powered the servers, but officials knew the generators would die in four hours. Officials had no idea when electricity would be restored and did not have an immediate place to redirect the servers, so they shut down the computer system.
About 1,000 homes and businesses were affected by the outage. One parking garage attendant sat in his car trying to keep warm because the electricity in his booth was out. The outage had also affected business, he said.
"It should be full by now," the attendant said, looking at the large lot where fewer than a dozen cars were parked. Normally, construction workers building a hotel and condo complex nearby park in the lot, but the outage kept many of them away yesterday.
The trouble started at 5:38 a.m., when the cable failed.
Boston Police Superintendent Daniel Linskey said Mayor Thomas M. Menino is calling on the state Department of Public Utilities to conduct an investigation into what went wrong. The cause of the fire was unknown yesterday afternoon.
"Think of it as a fuse blowing in your house," said Caroline Allen, spokeswoman for NStar. "When that happens, many times there is a fire associated with it. The high voltage electricity has nowhere to go, so it begins to burn the cable insulation."
NStar officials had to close down one block of Stuart Street between Charles and Tremont streets as they tried to restore electricity. Allen said that officials may send the cable to be tested to find out what went wrong, but she added that several factors could have led to its failure, including age or corrosion.
"We do work with our regulators on developing maintenance programs that have strict standards," she said. "At the end of the day, we are operating a very large machine with thousands and thousands of miles underground."
Globe correspondent Anne Baker contributed to this report. 