A little girl’s birthday plans went up in smoke after a manhole fire spread to engulf her family’s car — and all her presents — in Brooklyn on Thanksgiving, the girl’s mother said.
“A lot of presents [were destroyed],” said 43-year-old Suelin Chen. “My daughter’s devastated.”
The two-alarm electrical fire ignited inside a manhole on Remsen St. near Hicks St. in Brooklyn Heights around noon and consumed Chen’s Subaru SUV parked nearby, FDNY Deputy Chief Stephen Corcoran said.
The FDNY said 25 units representing 106 firefighters and EMS personnel responded to the blaze. No injuries were reported.
Chen, her husband and their two daughters, including the birthday girl, who turned 8 on Thanksgiving this year, drove down to Brooklyn from Massachusetts on Wednesday for a planned weeklong trip to visit friends for the holiday.
The little birthday girl had been looking forward to blowing out candles and eating some cake at a party in New Jersey Thursday night. But the blaze left her family stranded in Brooklyn and the girl in tears, her mother said.
“The car was completely burnt,” Chen said. “We had a ton of stuff in there, my kids’ bikes, a scarf I spent over a year knitting for my daughter, their shoes, books, iPads — everything got burnt up.
“My daughter cried a lot,” she added.
Chen said that Con Edison workers offered her family apologies at the scene but she’s hoping the energy provider will give more than condolences in light of their damaged property.
“I know it’s Thanksgiving but it would be great if we could get some kind of reassurances,” she said. “This is a lot of money for my family and we’re not sure how we’re going to get back home.
“Obviously, it’s just stuff, but at the same time I really hope that Con Ed will take care of it.”
Con Edison did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As firefighters rushed to extinguish the flames engulfing Chen’s Subaru, a fire broke out inside a fourth-floor apartment located nearby on Remsen St.
Firefighters had to wait for Con Edison to arrive and shut off power to the building before battling that blaze, which caused extensive damage and left a family displaced on Thanksgiving.
Corcoran said that the apartment fire was likely related to the manhole fire, too.
“The cause of the fire in the building, which we’re assuming is correlated to the electrical fire in the street, is still under investigation,” he said.