Crime & Safety

Smoke from Morristown Manhole Caused by Broken Wire

Authorities initially investigated a report of an underground explosion.

An investigation into a smoking manhole cover Wednesday afternoon revealed a broken wire as the cause, although police initially probed a report of an underground explosion.

At 1:04 p.m., Officer Brian McDonnell responded to the intersection of Morris and Elm streets while police advised residents to avoid the area due to a "dangerous situation"
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"Upon arrival, I observed smoke coming from a manhole on the sidewalk," said McDonnell in his report. Police shut down the roadway and issued an alert via Nixle letting residents know to avoid Morris Street and expect traffic delays.

JCP&L responded and took control of the scene, and allowed police to reopen the roads, said the report. 

Upon investigation, JCP&L determined that “there was no explosion. The manhole cover didn’t fly off. It may have been jostled a bit. There was a broken wire that is not a part of the Morristown underground network. That’s what caused the smoke,” said Ron Morano, spokesman for JCP&L. 

“It’s from a circuit another line that feeds through Morristown.”

Morano added that there was no outage to the Morristown network, and there were no injuries.


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