by Mike Schnitzel
LIPA spokesman Michael Lowndes said that the breaker failure caused a spark, which precipitated an explosion that caused a fire.
He explained that one of the three chambers on the breaker that contain dielectric fluid, a mineral oil used to cool breakers and transformers, blew out the fluid, which caught fire. The flames were contained by firefighters from the Lynbrook Fire Department, who responded to the scene.
First Assistant Chief Keith Festa, the chief in charge at the scene, said that 12 vehicles from the Lynbrook F.D. responded, and there was mutual aid standby from the Valley Stream and East Rockaway departments. Festa said that before the fire could be addressed by firefighters, LIPA had to confirm that power was completely shut off. He said that confirmation came at 2:37 a.m.
Festa said that the fire was contained in 20 to 30 minutes, and afterward a blanket was spread on top of the foam to make sure the dielectric fluid did not again erupt in flames. Additionally, LIPA environmental specialists were on the scene to clean up the fluid that blew out during the explosion.
Police said that the fire was deemed accidental, and that no one was injured. Lowndes confirmed that an investigation by LIPA into the fire is ongoing, and that human error was not a factor in the explosion. "The explosion was caused by equipment failure," he said.
The cleanup was completed several days ago, Lowndes said in a telephone interview on Monday.
No widespread outages were reported as a result of the incident. "When the explosion occurred, there was a momentary outage that lasted one to two seconds," said Lowndes. "When an explosion like this occurs, the circuit was carried on other lines, so no customers on the line lost power."
The momentary lapse in power wreaked havoc, however, with alarm clocks all over the community. Many residents said they slept through the explosion and were confused to wake up and see their clocks blinking 12:00 a.m. - the approximate time of the explosion.
Comments about this story? MSchnitzel@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 265.
