Internet Culture

Heads up for the exploding manhole cover in Buffalo

Manhole cover explodes like the Earth is about to end, interrupts TV interview.

Photo of Josh Katzowitz

Josh Katzowitz

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We’ve all been there before. You know how when you’re being interviewed by a TV news station because you’ve witnessed some kind of underground electrical fire, and right in the middle of one of your thoughts, a manhole cover explodes hundreds of feet in the air? Man, I hate when that happens.

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Unfortunately for the man below, he was the victim of such a rude interruption.

With WGZR in Buffalo, N.Y., covering an electrical fire on Sunday afternoon, photojournalist Dave Harrington heard an explosion as he was arriving at the scene. Then, when he was interviewing the man in the video below, this happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR3Z4wA-gE0

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While you can hear somebody shout “Heads up!” over and over again as the manhole cover flips majestically in the air, here’s how the witness reacted to the explosion.

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Hard to tell if the witness is warning the nearby workers or if he’s celebrating such an awesome feat of power. So, anyway, what happened?

As WGZR explained, “The explosions were probably caused by the rapid build-up of heat, gas and smoke leading to intense pressure in the confined space under the road. The sequence of explosions moving along the street shows the fire was probably following a conduit.”

Man, don’t you just hate it when that happens?

Photo via Paul Sableman/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

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