Since the beginning of the year, three unexplained underground fires in a short stretch of North Charles Street have knocked out utilities for thousands of Baltimore residents, interrupted critical city operations, blown a manhole cover to pieces and turned a small downtown bookstore into something resembling a disaster zone.
But so far, city officials have few answers about what’s causing the spate of subterranean blazes, the risks posed to residents and businesses, and how likely it is to happen again.
No serious injuries have been tied to each of the fires that broke out in January, June and over the weekend — all of which drew first responders to the 200, 300 and 400 blocks of North Charles Street. Officials have not indicated whether they believe the fires are linked.
Sunday’s underground fire was extinguished quickly, but the impact lingered with the Baltimore City Circuit Courthouse, Central Enoch Pratt Free Library and several businesses closed more than a day later. The cause is still under investigation, said John Marsh, a spokesperson for the Baltimore City Fire Department. The causes of the fires in January and June have not been made public.
Underground fires, which are sometimes referred to as subsurface fires, are especially dangerous to battle, Marsh said in a message Monday morning.
“Not only are they a challenge from a tactical perspective because of, to be honest, the simple fact that the fire is hard to get to, but the huge challenge the underground high-voltage infrastructure possesses,” Marsh said. “The BCFD can’t attack the fire until the electricity is de-energized.”
At a news conference Monday morning, Mayor Brandon Scott said officials don’t believe there is an ongoing danger to residents and that he is convening the companies that rely on the underground infrastructure — including BGE, Comcast and Verizon — to try to get to the bottom of the incidents and look for ways to prevent them.
A Comcast spokesperson said crews are still awaiting access to the area and taking steps in the meantime to assist customers.
“To help Baltimore City residents and businesses stay connected following a manhole fire that damaged our network yesterday, Comcast opened public Xfinity WiFi hotspots in the area,” said Kristie Fox, a vice president for communications at Comcast, in a statement Monday evening. “The free and public hotspots are open for anyone to use, including non-Xfinity customers. Once we are granted access to the area, we will begin work to repair our fiber and restore services as quickly and safely as possible.
A representative for Verizon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
BGE officials have not commented directly on the cause of the three incidents along North Charles Street.
Fires in the underground system are rare, said BGE spokesman Richard Yost in an email Monday. The nature of these incidents and the fact that they occur underground could make it difficult to determine a cause or even an order of events, Yost said. Many sections of Baltimore’s underground network, portions of which have been in existence for more than a century, are in disrepair due to age, he said.
Baltimore’s underground network runs about 700 miles and contains more than 10,000 manholes across the city, Yost said. It contains electric systems, fiber optics that support phone, internet and emergency service, as well as wireless technologies.
Some factors that can damage the underground infrastructure include deterioration or collapses due to age; corrosion of electric lines caused by water and brine from the roads above; escaping steam from the underground steam system; infiltration from the water system; electric equipment failures; or issues with customer equipment connected to the network.
“As we work on our electric system, if we identify something that needs to be improved or could be configured in a safer manner on our systems, we would address it,” Yost said.
Scott also stressed the age of Baltimore’s infrastructure, which leaves it vulnerable to fires or even explosions. Sunday’s fire wiped out power and internet for thousands of Baltimore residents along with the city courthouse, closing the building to the public and employees on Monday.
Still, the mayor indicated that the city isn’t pursuing any legal recourse over the incident at this point.
Asked whether he can confidently say that residents in this stretch of downtown are safe moving forward, Scott said he couldn’t promise that this was the last of the underground incidents. “You’re trying to have me predict fires,” he said. He’s the mayor of Baltimore, not “the Great Wizard of Oz,” Scott said.
”We want to prevent what we can prevent, knowing that there are things that happen that, unfortunately, no one can prevent from happening,” he added.
An electrical fire first broke out in January beneath North Charles Street, drawing emergency responders and utility crews to the 200, 300 and 400 blocks between Baltimore and West Mulberry streets. Officials at the time reported smoke coming from manholes and possible manhole explosions. At one point, the fire interrupted the city’s emergency service communications, including 911 dispatch.
In June, fire crews responded again to the 200 block of North Charles Street for a high-voltage underground fire that caused a building to be evacuated, The Baltimore Sun reported.
Flames could be seen Sunday leaping from one manhole cover while smoke rose from several others. Some manholes might have exploded, city officials said at the time. A photo showed a heavy metal cover shattered into several pieces.
Sunday’s fire also caused significant damage above ground to the historic Brown’s Arcade building. The row of three-story retail and residential spaces in the building occupying 322 through 328 N. Charles St. had housed the Indian eatery Lumbini Restaurant, the plant shop and wine bar Stem and Vine, Viva Books and the Irish pub Mick O’Shea’s.
Those addresses on Monday each bore bright orange notices declaring the structures unsafe by the Baltimore City Office of the Fire Marshal. A worker in a neon vest and hard hat was seen just before noon stapling a condemnation notice to 326 N. Charles St.
About 1,000 residents in and around Mount Vernon awoke early Monday morning to lingering power outages, according to Baltimore Gas and Electric’s outage map. By noon, that figure shrank to about 560 people.
Businesses and institutions in parts of Mount Vernon and downtown — including the courthouse and library on Cathedral Street — were also closed Monday due to the incident.
The library system said in a statement late Monday that the Central Branch would remain closed Tuesday, with all programs canceled or postponed.
“Pratt teams are in close communication with utility crews that are trying to fix the severe damage underground,” the library system said. “In addition to power outages, the Pratt’s fiber line that runs the SAILOR network has been damaged. The SAILOR network provides statewide internet service to libraries, schools, and government agencies across Maryland. We will continue to work diligently with our utility partners to restore internet service as soon as possible.”
Baltimore Banner journalists Jessica Gallagher, Krishna Sharma and Justin Fenton contributed to this story.
