DETROIT – The Detroit Fire Department has confirmed the Fort Washington Plaza at 333 West Fort Street in downtown Detroit was evacuated Tuesday morning after an underground cable explosion.
A DTE Energy line blew under the street, sending smoke into the building. Two nearby manhole covers reportedly blew off the street.
"It sounds like a bomb and a cloud of black smoke comes up out of the manhole," said John Slavik, battalion chief with the Detroit Fire Department.
Police and firefighters shut down the intersections on Fort Street between Cass and Washington with concerns that more manhole covers could fly into the air and hit someone walking, or hit a car.
No injuries have been reported.
"The root of the problem was ... what I am told by the (DTE Energy) crew is that it was a failed cable," said Slavik. "So there was an underground power cable downtown that failed. It actually exploded and blew the manhole covers right off their seat."
The manhole covers which blew off are back in place.
DTE is doing repairs. The Detroit mayor's office said the cause of the cable failure is not known yet.