“No extraterrestrial activity”: an explosion lights up the skies of New York

A transformer explosion at a power station in New York City, United States, lit the sky blue around Astoria in the Borough of Queens on Thursday night and caused a series of blackouts current.

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“The light you saw appearing in the sky was produced by the explosion of a transformer at the Consolidated Edison plant in Queens,” the New York Police Department advised on Twitter, later adding that there was “no evidence of extraterrestrial activity.”

On social networks, images of the sky, colored with a blue halo, have circulated a lot. In front of a landscape worthy of a science fiction film, some Internet users joked by hypothesizing the arrival of Martians.

In fact, an electrical overload in one of the substations is the cause of the explosion.

The fire has been brought under control, authorities said, saying further information would be released during the evening. For now, the police are asking people to avoid the Astoria area.

The explosion was not injured, for its part said the New York fire department.

The management of Consolidated Edison, which owns the plant, confirmed that a fire had broken out at its station in Queens and assured to collaborate with the authorities.

The public transport network has been slow. The explosion even caused a brief disruption of services to New York’s La Guardia Airport, which resumed around 11 p.m. local time. Some flights could be delayed, warned the mayor, Bill de Blasio.

This is the second major incident to occur at one of Consolidated Edison’s plants in six months.