Second manhole fire within a block of Barclays Center site snags traffic, knocks out nearby subway for 80 minutes

Traffic from Bergen Street turning south on Sixth Avenue

Update: Patch notes that the two fires are not connected to power demands for the arena, which has separate sources.

For the second time in three days, a manhole fire has stopped traffic within a block from the Barclays Center site and drawn emergency personnel from the New York Fire Department on Con Edison. This time the fire stopped the subway for 80 minutes.

On July 1, it was a manhole fire on Flatbush Avenue. Today, shortly before noon, there was a manhole fire at Sixth Avenue and Bergen Street, right near the 78th Precinct.

Sixth Avenue was blocked off between Dean and Bergen, and Bergen was blocked off between Sixth and Flatbush, thus forcing westbound traffic on the latter to turn onto Sixth.

Patch on the scene

According to Patch, the 11:40 am fire cut power to the 2/3/4/5 subway and at least 122 customers, including the precinct house, with more than half the customers regaining power within 90 minutes:

All subway service south of Atlantic-Pacific Street was halted between 11:40 a.m. and 1 p.m. Service then resumed with residual delays, an MTA spokeswoman said.

Con Edison still does not know the reason for the repeated fires

Video and photo by Raul Rothblatt.