UPDATES: Ditmas Park Manhole Fire Fills Streets With Thick Smoke, Carbon Monoxide

DITMAS PARK, BROOKLYN — An underground electrical fire broke out around 10:15 a.m. Monday morning along Argyle Road between Cortelyou and Beverly roads, sending thick smoke and gassy fumes into the air, according to city fire officials.

Around 60 firefighters responded to the manhole fire, as well as crews from National Grid and Con Edison. No injuries had been reported by afternoon.

"There were smoking ConEd electric lines coming from [two] manholes," a National Grid spokeswoman said via email. (But despite earlier reports, a ConEd spokeswoman said, no transformer was involved.)

"We detected elevated levels of CO on some of the surrounding properties," an FDNY spokesman told Patch around 1:30 p.m. "So we're monitoring those properties and trying to vent and make sure everyone's OK over there."

The Cortelyou public library branch and the P.S. 139 elementary school are located nearby.

A representative for the school said students would not be evacuated Monday.

She did say, however, that parents picking up their fourth or fifth graders from school should retrieve them from main office — and younger kids should be picked up at Exit C and Exit D — to avoid the mess of firetrucks still lining nearby streets.

Firefighters at the scene told a BKLYNER reporter that runoff from salt and snowmelt can cause underground transformers to catch fire. Another, more serious manhole explosion in the same area in early February halted the Q train and cut off power to dozens of neighbors.

Spokespeople from both Con Edison and National Grid said no customer service was affected Monday.