Authorities say a New York man is lucky to be alive after a transformer exploded right underneath the sidewalk he was walking on.
The incident occurred last week in Queens as 57-year-old Barry West was out running errands, police say. Surveillance video shows West step onto a sidewalk grate just as the transformer explodes, sending a torrent of flames up through the grate and momentarily enveloping him.
As of Tuesday afternoon, West remained in the hospital, where he was recovering from second-degree burns. Electric company Con Edison says it’s “fully investigating the cause of this event which caused serious injury to a member of the public.”