Following Sunday afternoon’s hail storm, an explosion, underground, on the west side of Colorado Springs.
Around 3 p.m. firefighters responded to Garden of the Gods Road, across from the Sonic drive-thru, where a manhole cover had reportedly blown off following the severe weather that hit the area. Crews on scene said water from the storm damaged a switch in some underground equipment causing the manhole to blow open.
#Firefighters with #ColoradoSpringsFireDepartment working on a manhole that may have blown open on W Garden of the Gods Rd from the recent hail that came down in #COS. Working on finding out more details. @KOAA pic.twitter.com/hSR2CzWuJl
— Jessica Barreto (@BarretoReports) June 24, 2018
This knocked the power out for 337 people in the area including two local businesses. Two restaurants on west Garden of the Gods Road were affected, as employees heard the explosion.
"It’s a normal day, we’re doing our job working taking orders then all of a sudden we hear this exclusion and we look outside right I’m going to be god there’s this huge, smoke weed that maybe a lightning bolt struck," said Sonic Associate Manager, Michael Shafer.
Utility workers were able to restore power for all those affected just before 4 p.m. Workers were able to restore power by re-routing power from a nearby source.
Crews on scene are now determining whether to repair or replace the underground equipment.
