BLASTS HIT ALBANY'S DOWNTOWN OFFICES EVACUATED AFTER WIRE GETS HOT.(Main)

Byline: Nancy Connell

Underground electrical explosions in downtown Albany late Tuesday afternoon sent hundreds of workers into the streets and snarled rush-hour traffic. No injuries were reported.

A series of explosions sent yellow and then gray smoke and tongues of flame shooting up out of a manhole on James Street. Again and again, the smoke and flames would die down only to begin again with a new series of explosions, which lasted, intermittently, for more than an hour.

Despite the fireworks, the problem was fixed without incident and the situation posed relatively little danger to the surrounding area, Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. director of public affairs Raymond Hull said. No downtown customers lost power and no transformers were involved, Hull said. No gas lines were in the area, he added.

The problem apparently began with a defective wire smouldering underground on James Street, just north of State Street.

Four workers …