Ohio Edison checking into exploding manhole cover in Warren

WARREN — Neil Durbin, a spokesman for Dominion East Ohio Gas, says the company has “no record of any incident” involving a manhole cover being blown into the air on East Market Street Thursday afternoon with flames shooting out under it.

Robin Patton, spokeswoman for Ohio Edison, says workers from the company looked at the situation briefly Thursday but plan to return this week to look at it again. Patton said she doesn’t know yet whether the manhole belongs to Ohio Edison or Dominion.

Workers with Warren’s Water Pollution Control Department looked at the manhole after the 1 p.m. explosion and determined that it was not a water or wastewater manhole, said Ruth Wissinger, engineering aide at the Warren Engineering Department.

She contacted Ohio Edison and went to the location, which is in front of the First Place Bank near Pine Street Northeast. She “introduced” a witness to the incident to the Ohio Edison personnel so Ohio Edison could hear what happened, she said.

Josh Knapp, who was working for Records Systems of Boardman and was about five feet away, said the manhole blew into the air just a few feet behind him. He was not injured, he said.

“That had to be a gas leak or something. It was loud. It’s the first time I’ve seen that,” he said.

Warren Fire Chief Ken Nussle said he’s heard of this type of thing happening one other time in Warren, maybe 15 years ago, also on East Market Street, about one block east of there.

Atty. Dan Letson, who was sitting in his car at the East Market/Pine Street intersection when it happened, said the manhole blew between two and three feet in the air “with [orange and blue] flames shooting out of the hole.”