Manhole Fire Forces Evacuation At Newark Airport
NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A manhole fire outside Newark Liberty International Airport forced officials to evacuate a section of Terminal C Friday morning.
Fire crews responded to the scene just before noon and quickly extinguished the fire.
#PAPD ARFF, ESU, Patrol & Newark FD on scene, transformer fire under Terminal C, Newark Airport. Some terminal & flight interruptions, contact your carrier. #PAPDPROTECTSNYNJ #PAPD #NEWARKAIRPORT. pic.twitter.com/YLqy84hvRq
— Port Authority PBA (@PAPD911) January 12, 2018
Only Terminal C-1 wing was evacuated. The rest of the terminal was operational.
No injuries were reported.
PSE&G cut power temporarily and the terminal went under back-up generator power as the utility worksedto fix the problem, the airport tweeted.
As CBS2's Dave Carlin reported, the generators kicked in early and kept check-in, security and other airport operations going. But passengers shared social media images of showed jams at ticket counters and longer lines to get through security during the fire and outage.
Due to a fire in a PSE&G manhole fire outside Terminal C, PSE&G has cut power temporarily and the terminal is under back-up generator power. The C-1 wing has been evacuated as a precaution. Fliers should contact United Airlines for info on their flights.
— Newark Liberty Airport. Wear a Face Covering. (@EWRairport) January 12, 2018
There were also long lines as evacuated passengers had to go back through security.
Told there was a fire explosion at Newark airport Terminal c. Had to evacuate. Now floods of people trying to get thru security pic.twitter.com/G4i2uNiPig
— Mia Saini (@miasaini) January 12, 2018
Things were so bad that Montche Todlick did not know what to do.
"Nobody knows where to go. Nobody knows where is the security, where is the check in," Todlick told WCBS 880's Peter Haskell. "Terrible situation."
The terminal was back open Friday night, though the airport was suffering from delays due to heavy fog. Passengers were advised check with their airlines to see if there were any delays.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)