When firefighters arrived they spent the first 45 minutes evacuating businesses due to dangerously high carbon monoxide levels
A manhole explosion in Cambridge’s Harvard Square on Wednesday morning caused major traffic disruptions, according to police.
Cambridge police said the manhole explosion was reported around 8:30 a.m. in the vicinity of 27 Brattle Street. Firefighters were working to extinguish a fire following the explosion, and Eversource is also at the scene.
Fire officials said Wednesday afternoon that there were two separate manhole explosions, and a third one that was actively smoking. When firefighters arrived they spent the first 45 minutes evacuating businesses due to dangerously high carbon monoxide levels.
“We had very high CO readings, well over 100, at a number of the businesses in this area,” Acting Fire Chief Thomas F. Cahill Jr. told reporters, adding that anything above 0 is of concern, and they begin evacuations at 35 parts per million (ppm).
