After underground fire causes an explosion downtown, about 1700 BGE customers were temporarily out of power

Dillon Mullan, Bill Wachsberger, Caitlyn Freeman, Baltimore Sun
Updated ·2 min read

Many downtown Baltimore residents and businesses were without power after a maintenance hole cover popped off during an underground fire in the 300 block of North Charles Street late Thursday night.

The explosion happened outside Rod Dee Thai restaurant at 340 North Charles between Saratoga and Mulberry streets. As of Friday at 4 p.m., Charles Street was still closed at Saratoga Street.

Talon Sachs, a BGE spokesperson said Friday morning that customers may experience additional temporary service interruptions during the underground restoration process to install electric cables.

“Preliminarily, we think it was an electrical fire,” Kevin Cartwright, the fire department’s director of communications, said Thursday night. “We ran tests and there were no readings for gas.”

There were no injuries, he added.

The City’s Department of Public Works’ Office of Emergency Management said, in a news release sent out early Friday morning, initial assessments found smoke from multiple manhole covers and fire emitting from one cover. The fire appears to have impacted underground electrical conduits along North Charles Street.

The incident prompted BGE to shut down power to the area around the 300 and 400 blocks of N. Charles Street to extinguish the fire, causing about 1,700 customers to lose service, BGE said in a statement released Friday morning.

As of Friday evening, most of the outages appear to be resolved.

The main Mercy Hospital facility, located at 345 St. Paul Place, remained “largely unaffected,” DPW said in its news release. However, some 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,” the release said.

City and BGE officials worked at the scene Friday morning and the city advised drivers to avoid that portion of Charles Street. Additionally, the Mitchell and Cummings Courthouses were closed on Friday due to the explosion.

The DPW did not respond to requests for updated information by Friday late afternoon.

Mick O’Sheas Irish Pub, located at 328 N. Charles Street, was closed Friday due to the explosion. Server Sara Hennessey heard the explosion while working.

“First, I heard a loud bang. I looked outside and saw what I thought was fog,” she said Thursday evening. “The firefighters showed up to the restaurant and had us leave through the back door. I thought it was a truck going over something on the first bang. There were two bangs.”

The explosion also caused an interruption to the city’s 911 dispatch around 1 a.m. on Friday, the city news release said.

“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,” the release said. “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.”