Blackout follows Dorchester manhole fire

A manhole fire in Dorchester caused thousands of residents and businesses to lose power Sunday night, authorities said.

The blackout and fire, which a police spokeswoman said was in the area of 1152 Dorchester Ave., was caused by a faulty cable in the manhole, said Joanne O’Leary, an NSTAR spokeswoman.

Over 4,600 customers were affected about 8:30 p.m. when the outage began, O’Leary said. Most of them had their power restored within an hour, but 1, 676 customers remained in the dark about 9:15 p.m., she said.

The fire did cause the manhole cover to fly out of the ground, but no one was injured in the incident, O’Leary said.