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City Hall and the Public Safety Building are seen along Market Street on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016, in downtown Johnstown.

City Hall and the Public Safety Building are seen along Market Street on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016, in downtown Johnstown.

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Damage to an underground electric cable likely caused a “fault” on Sunday that caused two manhole covers to blow off on Market Street in downtown Johnstown, a Penelec spokesman said.

Such incidents are similar to utility pole transformer surges. But because the section of downtown Johnstown’s system was built below the road surface, the pressure that built up didn’t have the same space and air to enable it to dissipate, Penelec spokesman Todd Meyers said.

“A lot of times, during this time of year, a lot of road salt is getting washed down into the system and impacting these old lines,” he said.

“The pressure, created when you have these kinds of failures, has to escape somewhere.”

Johnstown fire Chief Bob Statler said one of his assistants spotted smoke raising from two Market Street manholes just after 11 a.m. Sunday.

Penelec was contacted and firefighters closed off a portion of Market Street to keep the public and traffic away.

The timing was fortunate because businesses in that area are closed Sunday and traffic is minimal, Statler said, noting that neither people nor property were struck by the heavy manhole covers.

Meyers said three downtown customers lost power for two hours Sunday evening while repairs were being made. Additional work to replace old line in that corridor is forthcoming, he added.

A similar incident occurred in Erie late last month, Meyers said.

David Hurst is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @TDDavidHurst and Instagram @TDDavidHurst.

An underground fire that knocked out power in downtown Johnstown for parts of two days last week drew attention to a growing concern – the cit…

David Hurst is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @TDDavidHurst and Instagram @TDDavidHurst.

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