Flatiron Explosion Just One Of Many Steam Blasts To Rock NYC

NEW YORK, NY — The steam pipe that exploded near the iconic Flatiron Building Thursday rocked the city 11 years and a day after a similar blast near Grand Central Terminal. Those are just two in a long line of steam pipe ruptures near New York City landmarks in the past three decades.

Some of New York's most iconic buildings — including the Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center and the Time Warner Center — are served by a massive steam system that winds its way across Manhattan and dates back to the 1880s, according to ConEdison, the company that runs the pipes.

"They tend to be big buildings," said ConEd spokesman Allan Drury. "Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, United Nations are some of the bigger steam customers."

City-shaking explosions have happened near some of those big customers, all of whom are connected by 105 miles of pipes that wind their way from Lower Manhattan up to 96th Street on the west side and 89th Street on the east, heating and cooling the buildings.

Thursday's explosion at Fifth Avenue and 21st Street injured five people and sent a huge cloud rising above the streets. Officials shut down a stretch of Fifth Avenue for days after confirming the blast spewed steam containing asbestos.

Similar explosions have occurred close to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Washington Square Park, the Lincoln Center and other world famous institutions.

Here's a timeline of several steam pipe explosions leading up to Thursday's blast.

1989 — Near Gramercy Park

Three people died and 24 others were injured after a steam pipe exploded near Gramercy Park on Aug. 19, 1989. The blast sent mud flying and left a crater five feet deep and 10 feet across, according to a New York Times report from the next day.

Like Thursday's explosion, the blast blew asbestos into the air — but the contamination reportedly wasn't disclosed until four days later.

The next month, ConEd said there had been at least 16 other explosions in the city since 1973 that apparently involved asbestos-lined steam pipes, according to a Times story from Sept. 2, 1989.

Another pipe exploded on the Upper West Side on Sept. 6 of that year, spewing asbestos-laced steam into the air but injuring no one, the Times reported. That blast occurred on West End Avenue near 65th Street, about a block west of Lincoln Center. A ConEd spokesman described it then as "really a rupture," according to the Times.

A third blast in six weeks struck Midtown on Sept. 25, 1989, spraying "mud and debris" onto East 40th Street and Madison Avenue, according to a Times story — not far from the New York Public Library's iconic Bryant Park building.

1990 — A Block From The Met

A ruptured pipe spewed more asbestos on the Upper East Side on March 22, 1990, forcing officials to shut down a seven-block stretch of Madison Avenue, the Times reported at the time. No one was hurt in the blast on Madison Avenue at 84th Street, about a block east of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but one worker in the area reportedly described the scene as "like a snowstorm."

August 1992 — Break Near Empire State Building

Twelve people were exposed to asbestos from steam that flowed out of a broken pipe near the Empire State Building on Aug. 17, 1992, the Times reported at the time.

The incident, which a ConEd spokeswoman described then as "a steam break of some description," shut down Fifth Avenue between 32nd and 34th streets, according to the Times. The famous skyscraper reportedly closed its Fifth Avenue entrance for hours.

November 1992 — Plant Near United Nations Headquarters

Condensed water in a steam pipe at a ConEd power plant reportedly caused an explosion on Nov. 10, 1992 that killed mechanic Eugene Murtha and seriously injured two others. The plant reportedly was at First Avenue and East 39th Street, a few blocks south of the United Nations headquarters.

The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration faulted ConEd for failing to drain steam pipes, among other violations, according to a Times story from the following year. The agency said ConEd had been cited for similar violations in two 1989 explosions, including the Gramercy Park blast, the Times reported at the time.

1994 — Blocks From Lincoln Center

Asbestos and debris flew 30 feet into the air when a pipe ruptured early in the morning at 10th Avenue and 57th Street in late July 1994, the Times reported. Lincoln Center sits about eight blocks north of that spot, and the Time Warner Center is about two blocks to the east and about two blocks north.

No one was hurt, but the rupture reportedly cracked a sidewalk and forced officials to close a four-block area around the intersection, according to the Times.

1996 — Close To Major Hospitals

A ruptured steam pipe sprayed "asbestos-laden debris" onto East 70th Street between First and Second avenues in June 1996, leading more than 50 people to evacuate a senior citizens center, the Times reported then. The area is roughly two blocks west of NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center and about three blocks north of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's main hospital.

Another pipe had reportedly exploded in Midtown a few months earlier, also sending debris with asbestos into the air, according to a Feb. 2 Times report.

2000 — Crater Near Washington Square Park

Aug. 31, 2000 was a rough day for New York University bookworms. A steam pipe exploded that morning outside the school's Elmer Holmes Bobst Library near Washington Square Park, leaving a 30-foot-wide crater, according to a Times story from the next day. Buildings, cars and people were hit with debris and "traces" of asbestos, the Times reported, but no one was hurt.

2007 — Explosion Rocks Grand Central Area

The city's last major steam pipe explosion created chaos during the evening rush hour of July 18, 2007. The blast near Grand Central Terminal just before 6 p.m. that day left one person dead and more than 30 injured, the Times reported at the time.

Concerned about asbestos, officials reportedly told people who were in the area to get rid of their clothes and bathe "carefully," the Times reported — similar to warnings issued after Thursday's blast.

A phenomenon known as a "water hammer" reportedly played a role in the explosion. Water settling around a pipe can cause the hot steam inside to condense into liquid water, which gets carried through the pipe and can cause it to break, Drury said.

Water hammer caused by ConEd's failure to drain pipes was reportedly cited in the November 1992 explosion. The phenomenon was also reportedly blamed for two of the 1989 blasts.

ConEd has rolled out a remote monitoring system over the last several years to keep an eye on the steam system that serves about 1,600 customers, Drury said.

Steam provides heating, cooling and hot water. It’s more efficient than natural gas and takes up less space than storing fuel on site, Drury said.

These explosions occurred in a steam system that’s more than a century old — it started providing service in 1882 and the pipe involved in Thursday's blast dates to 1932. But Drury said “age doesn’t necessarily mean bad.”

"We have infrastructure in the ground for all three commodities, gas, electric and steam, that’s been there for decades and decades," Drury said.

(Lead image: Smoke spewed from the street where a steam pipe exploded in the Flatiron District on Thursday. Photo used with permission of Patrick Keenan/Veronica Ramirez‏)