NEW YORK – A terrifying manhole explosion in Poughkeepsie on Sunday nearly claimed the lives of a grandmother and her two grandchildren, as shocking footage captured the frightening moment.
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Lisa Davis and her two young grandkids were walking home from an Easter egg hunt when they narrowly escaped danger. Seconds after passing a manhole, the explosion erupted, sending debris and concrete flying into the air. Davis described the heart-stopping moment, saying, “I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ I didn’t know where to go.”
In the video, Davis can be seen running with her 6-year-old grandson while pushing her younger grandchild in a stroller. The explosion narrowly missed them, forcing them to run for safety. “I didn’t know what to do except grab my grandson and run,” she said. “I couldn’t really run straight ahead of me to the corner because the manhole at the next corner blew up too.”
Emergency responders found high levels of gas in the craters left behind, with a chain reaction causing three manholes to explode. Although Davis was shaken, it wasn’t until she viewed the footage that she fully grasped the danger they had narrowly avoided.
“I’m one foot from losing my family,” she said, still reeling from the incident.
Despite the harrowing event, her grandson wasn’t as concerned. “I’m kind of scared, but I wasn’t that scared,” he told ABC 7.
The explosions have raised concerns about safety, especially considering the ongoing challenges of aging infrastructure.
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Around a year or two ago, three ConEdison underground transformer gratings/manholes exploded up in front of viznitz 53rd in BoroPark in middle of the morning. If chas vshalom a wedding was going on then it could have turned into tens of lvayos, Hashem yerachem
I remember as a child something like this happening right outside of MTJ on Shabbos afternoon. The sound of the explosion was tremendous. Reb Dovid zatza”l rushed outside to see if everyone was alright and immediately after went back into the Bais Medrash to continue his learning, leaving us to “hock” around.
When I worked for the phone company we had gas test kits used before opening up. Some guys preferred to drop a lit match in to test. Covers weigh 200 pounds. B’H nobody was insured.
Talk about Hashgacha pratis. I walked by a manhole cover and nothing happened! B”H!
This didn’t happen when Biden was president. Just saying.