This Marine survived a year and countless unseen bombs on the battlefields of Iraq — but was nearly blown to bits by an explosive parking spot in Crown Heights!
Roadside Explosion Guts Marine’s Truck – Iraq? No, B’klyn!
This Marine survived a year and countless unseen bombs on the battlefields of Iraq — but was nearly blown to bits by an explosive parking spot in Crown Heights!
Death-dodging Crown Heights leatherneck Nigel Edinborough — who saw firsthand the powerful road side bombs in Iraq — narrowly escaped parking hell yesterday when a manhole exploded beneath his SUV moments after he found an open spot.
“It was like back in Iraq,” said Edinborough, an eight-year military-veteran-turned-ironworker who returned from Iraq in 2005 after serving a year there.
His 2002 Ford Escape was incinerated less than two minutes after he hopped out at Empire Boulevard in Crown Heights at around 6:40 a.m.
“All I could think about was my wife and daughter — I could’ve been in that car,” said Edinborough.
The SUV, which Edinborough, 31, bought new and on which he had more than 87,000 miles, was torched along with his work tools, winter coat, pricey sound system and GPS after a series of manholes on the street exploded.
Last week, he and his wife, Peaches, had taken their week-old daughter, Nilah, to the doctor at around the same time of day, he said.
“She was really shook up,” he said about his wife’s reaction to his near-death experience. “She gave me a big hug.”
Edinborough said moments after he had moved the doomed Ford to its new parking spot, he headed back into his apartment building nearby.
The elevator was broken, and he was walking the five floors to his apartment when he heard a loud explosion.
“Before I got upstairs, I heard a loud boom,” he said.
He compared the sound to those he heard daily in Iraq, where roadside bombs are the scourge of military convoys.
“I didn’t pay it no attention, but then I heard helicopters overhead and firetrucks, and turned on the news and I saw a vehicle on fire that looked like mine,” he said.
By the time Edinborough raced back downstairs — just 15 minutes after he moved the SUV — it was simply a husk.
A spokeswoman for Con Edison said the power company responded to three manhole explosions on the block.
She believed the explosions could have been the result of melted snow and ice that had mixed with road salt to create electrically conductive runoff that shorted out several underground power boxes.
Slow day at USPS
The post office on Empire was immobilized a whole day yesterday from this blast.
Jack
I hope con edison will be sued big. They ought to pay punitive damage$
To Jack
Agreed, except for the fact that then “Con Edison” won’t end up paying for it; they’ll just pass along the cost to us, their customers. No, the ones who should be sued big and pay punitive damages are the individuals there who are responsible for the (non-)maintenance of their electrical equipment.
shocking
after the last storm I heard noises coming from a manhole on the corner of brooklyn ave and president street. I called 911 and con-ed emergency responded and were working on the block for the next 2 days fixing the problem. what surprised me is that many many people walked past without bothering to call the authorities. BH nobody was hurt. but if you see/hear something, do something about it.
Exempt
I think Con Edison is exempt from being sued for things of this sort.
inconsiderate!
this is post is extremely out of poor taste.
Read before you write
to #6 this is a repost from the NY post go complain to them!
T. James
I think the facts here are distorted. If this man lives on Empire Blvd, he could not have heard the boom two minutes after he went upstairs because the car was on fire when the trucks came and while they were in the process of putting it out it became completely engulfed. The lights started to flicker by 6:15 a.m. and was completely out by 6:20. By this time we were preparing to evacuate our home. Before you go to print, check out the facts.
Crown heights
I heard the loud noise and I live on sterling b/t Brooklyn and ny avenue and it was about 6 35 in the morning I was not paying any attention to it .and than I heard hellicobter than I knew something wAs going on.