Fire on Garth Road

An underground electrical fire on Garth Road on Wednesday afternoon 6/1 resulted in a large scale evacuation of local businesses and apartments due to the threat of an explosion of manholes on the street. When fire officials arrived just after 2 pm they found heavy smoke and fire coming from a manhole on Garth Road at Freightway and smoke coming out of another manhole at Garth and Popham Roads. Smoke was also rising out of the lamposts that line the roadway. Firefighters report that flames shot 50 feet into the air and Con Edison was called to shut off the power in the area. After the power was turned off, firefighters flooded the manhole to extinguish the fire.

Over 100 people were evacuated from Garth Road including all the stores lining the street as well as apartment dwellers up to #56 Garth Road. Both CVS on the Popham Road Bridge and the 7-11 on Garth Road were without power. Temperatures were above 90 degrees and the store’s refrigerators had to be emptied. The Popham Road Bridge and the lower portion of Garth Road was closed from 2:00 to 4:45 snarling traffic for hours. The fire department had a Bee Line bus sent in to shelter the evacuees as it was extremely hot outside.

Two fire trucks, a ladder truck and three command vehicles were on the scene. Scarsdale career firefighters and ten volunteers were assisted by a unit from Greenville, and firefighters from White Plains and Hartsdale manned Scarsdale fire stations during the Scarsdale crew’s absence. Scarsdale Fire Chief Thomas Cain reported that firefighters worked closely with Police and Con Edison and all decision makers worked together in a well coordinated effort.

Scott of Gianonnis on Garth Road reported smoke outside and a power loss, but fortunately his back up generator kept their food cold. The store

was closed for the day and he stayed on until 9:30 pm on Wednesday night to ensure the safety of the shop. However on Thursday, Gianonnis was open and as busy as ever -- and customers were not even aware of what had happened the previous day.

Marie Labropoulos, owner of the Kalliste Organic Soap shop on Freightway gave the following account and took the picture shown at the top:

I noticed something was wrong as the lights in my shop started to flicker and initially attributed it to an overload on the electrical system due to the A/C running all day. Just seconds after that I could smell ozone and knew there was a definite taxing on the system so I switched off my lights and A/C and stepped outside where I saw black smoke billowing out of the manhole.

Sam, who works for the village and is a volunteer fireman was down the street and immediately got on his radio to call for emergency response. Within a minute the first officers arrived and began informing all of the commercial and residential tenants of Garth Rd. to evacuate the vicinity and not breathe in the harmful fumes. The Fire Department and Con Edison worked together for the next several hours to get what I believe were three underground fires out and electricity as well as safety to the neighborhood restored. Today Con Edison continues to work underground on rebuilding the lines while the Fire Department and Police Department are patrolling the area.”

By Thursday, though Con Edison trucks lined the streets, the power was back on and it was business as usual.