The sky above Queens was set ablaze last night with blue lights after a Con Edison transformer went up in flames.
The mysterious blue light that flooded much of New York City’s sky late Thursday night was discovered to be an electrical emergency. Con Edison quickly took to twitter to say, “There was a brief electrical fire at our substation in Astoria which involved some electrical transformers and caused a transmission dip in the area.”
December 27, 2018 > The day the night sky turned blue over New York City. Apparent incident at power plant in #Astoria. pic.twitter.com/oaQApuMkvf
— Oren Segal (@orensegal) December 28, 2018
The electrical fire took place at their substation on 20th Avenue & 32nd Street in Astoria. Although it was shortlived, the flickering blue sky was a specacular occurence.
Blue lights over the New York/La Guardia/Astoria skies…..that suddenly…in a beat…stoped. #nyc #blue #lights #aliens pic.twitter.com/LlRP1zsVTs
— Alexandra (i) S(taterna) (@alexx2a77) December 28, 2018
The eerie blue sky could even be seen from Manhattan:
Very strange bright blue light in the #nyc sky. pic.twitter.com/Gjo6yY4ICZ
— Anna Palmer (@annawritesstuff) December 28, 2018
In a statement made early Friday to NBC4, spokesman Bob McGee said “The electrical fault on the 138,000 volt equipment caused a sustained electrical arc flash that was visible across a wide area.”
Looks like a transformer at the Con Ed plant blew. Fire seems to be out now. Is everyone ok? pic.twitter.com/lydIkhYMy5
— Lorraine Klimowich (@MsKlimowich) December 28, 2018
It was announced by City Council Speaker Corey Johnson on Twitter that LaGuardia Airport was “temporarily closed due to power outage resulting from the ConEd transformer explosion.” At around 11 p.m. the airport’s power was mostly restored and running. The NYPD confirmed there were no injuries in the explosion, and announed Friday morning that it was due to a “non-suspicious equipment malfunction.”
My buddy sent me this video from Astoria. That weird blue sky is an explosion at a power plant is queens according to several news outlets. WOW! It looks like something out of a movie. #explosion #NYC #Queens pic.twitter.com/fqwB5o3nXZ
— Pedro Rivera (@PedroRiveraTV) December 28, 2018
featured image source: Twitter/Benjamin Passikoff @benpassikoff