A large fire department response responded to an underground utility fire in Crystal City this afternoon.
The fire, on the 2400 block of Crystal Drive amid office and apartment buildings, followed reports of an “explosion” heard and felt in the area shortly after 1 p.m. Tuesday.
“Large Fire Department presence at this time,” the Arlington County Fire Department said on social media around 1:30 p.m. “Utility company also en route. Please avoid the area while crews work to get the situation under control.”
“I work in Crystal City and a few minutes ago I heard/felt a large boom, looked over to a building down the street and saw smoke and some people evacuating,” a tipster wrote to ARLnow. “The smoke has turned black.”
A power outage has been reported in the area but it is unclear how widespread the outage is.
Around 2:30 p.m., ACFD said that the utility vault fire was under control, with the assistance of Alexandria and airport firefighters and Dominion power crews. As of 3:15 p.m., the fire was out and fire crews were clearing the scene.
No injuries were reported.
Today’s incident follows other power-related problems that have plagued Arlington this summer. Among them: a power outage Monday afternoon in part of Pentagon City and northern Crystal City, and an outage in Ballston and Virginia Square early this morning — at least the third such outage in the same area in the past month.
A strong explosion was heard, followed by smoke and the arrival of fire trucks. The sounds of fire alarms were audible in the surrounding buildings. The cause of the explosion is not yet known. #Crystalcity #crystalDr #Arlington #fire #Expansion pic.twitter.com/qGlouylao7
— Amr Gohar (@AmrGohar) July 23, 2024
UPDATE: Here's video of a little smoke rising (near the corner of the building) from an apparent underground electrical vault fire that occurred after a report of a loud boom on Crystal Drive south of 23rd Street in Crystal City a short time ago. The power surge set off alarms at… https://t.co/1LQnefUnQP pic.twitter.com/Tdoys7QGih
— Dave Statter (@STATter911) July 23, 2024
