Man hit in head by manhole cover as explosion injures two along Park Slope street
The fire and a massive boom were reported around 11:20 a.m. Monday near Fourth St. and Prospect Park West. The man had his head bandaged by responding firefighters, while a 93-year-old neighbor was cut across her forehead when the explosion shattered a window.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Monday, February 2, 2015, 12:29 PM
Updated: Monday, February 2, 2015, 4:14 PM
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A man is “lucky to be alive” after he was smashed in the head by a flying manhole cover Monday morning, sending his startled dog running off after a subterranean explosion near Prospect Park, officials and witnesses said.
An elderly woman inside her apartment and the man walking by were among two injured when smoke and fire erupted from a manhole on Prospect Park West around 11:20 a.m.
Sal Grillo, 71, was strolling with his black Labrador retriever, Abby, when the 70-pound cover flew 50 feet into the air and clobbered him in the head, an eyewitness named Bill told the Daily News.
"I was shocked because the explosion knocked me backwards," said Bill, who was shoveling his sidewalk and declined to give his last name. "It was an electric cable under the street and the smoke built up the pressure. I was shocked from that. I told the firefighters the man got hit. He was on the floor. I didn't see his dog."
The dog ran off into the park while the unidentified victim had his head bandaged by firefighters on scene. Firefighters were already checking out a smoldering manhole cover at Fourth St. And Prospect Park West in Park Slope when the cover blew a block away at Fifth St.
"It went 50 feet in the air and hit a civilian in the head," said FDNY Battalion Chief Steve Corcoran, who witnessed the blast. "It came without warning," he said, adding he had no time to shout out a warning.
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He said Grillo, who lives in the neighborhood, was hit by the flying iron cover didn't see it coming.
"He's lucky to be alive," said Deputy Chief Patrick Clifford.
Grillo, dressed in street clothes, was knocked out when Corcoran and his crew got to him. He was semi-conscious when an ambulance took him to nearby Methodist Hospital.
His dog was found about an hour after the blast and taken to a pharmacy at Church Ave. and Ocean Parkway. Sean Casey, who runs an animal resuce in Brooklyn, picked the Abby up and returned the pooch to Grillo's wife.
"She was shaking and her paws were bleeding," Casey said.
Casey said he tracked down the Grillo family through micro chip implanted in Abby.
The 11:30 a.m. explosion was so powerful it shattered windows along the Prospect Park street, just blocks from Sen. Chuck Schumer's apartment.
Marge Contorno, 93, was injured inside her third-floor apartment at Fifth St. and Prospect Park West when her window was shattered and she was cut by flying glass.
"We've been to a hundred of these today and this is the only one that lifted the lid," Clifford said.
Utility company Con Edison, along with 65 firefighters and 12 FDNY units, were busy securing the area after the explosion rattled buildings throughout Park Slope.
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“I work from home and at first it sounded like construction, it sounded like a crane fell,” said Sona Rai, who lives near the scene. “Then it shook the building. It shook my body from where I’m sitting. It was very sudden and it was very loud and it was just once, then you heard the fire trucks. It was just so loud.”
Neighbors said emergency vehicles swarmed the scene. The noise was heard nearly half a mile south of the scene, according to a witness.
“There was a huge kaboom, explosion. I was like four blocks down, it was really loud,” Jenna Stern said. “It was loud enough for my friend … to feel it over on 12th St. and 7th Ave.”
A Con Edison spokesman said the fire was electrical and likely sparked by melting snow and street salt seeping into the underground electrical system.
"It's not a good combination," Sidney Alvarez said.
