Heat Wave Causes ‘Summer Madness’ in N. Y.

Thursday was the kind of day that gives August a bad name.

First, some of the hottest and muggiest weather during the steamiest summer in years caused record demands on New York City’s overtaxed electrical power supply.

The overload led to six underground electrical cable fires in Lower Manhattan shortly after noon, when the mercury hit 93 degrees. The fires popped three or four manhole covers in the air to the surprise of onlookers. The manhole blasts were followed by a number of transformer fires and a muffled explosion under Police Plaza, where New York’s finest are based.

Police said that the fires blacked out five office buildings, disrupting telephone service and trapping at least a dozen persons in elevators, and caused power brownouts in other buildings. As a result, police evacuated buildings around Federal Plaza, including most federal agencies, the U.S. District Court House and the city’s 26-story Municipal Building.

“I can’t talk now,” said Laura Weisel, deputy director at the city-owned WNYC radio station atop the Municipal Building. “The police say I have to evacuate.”

One of the transformer fires released toxic polychlorinated biphenyls, but Joseph McGough, city environmental protection commissioner, said that they did not pose a health hazard. Dozens of emergency vehicles raced to the scene, tying up traffic for blocks around, and firefighters dressed in special chemical protective gear to battle the blaze.

At around 3 p.m., Consolidated Edison Electric Co. politely asked its customers to “voluntarily reduce their air-conditioning, lighting and the like so as to avert the possibility of a larger problem,” according to Con Ed spokesman Dan Walden.

Walden called the problems “minor,” adding: “We have what we call cable fires quite frequently--eight or nine a week. That’s just the nature of the system.”

But an hour later, Mayor Edward I. Koch jumped in. He called a news conference at City Hall to ask all businesses south of Canal Street--or the entire Financial District, City Hall District, World Trade Towers and more--to send their workers home early. He also released thousands of city employees. City Hall is not air-conditioned.

To keep others from entering, the city halted travel into the area via the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and most major arteries in Lower Manhattan, including Broadway. The city also reversed incoming traffic lanes on the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. Massive rush hour traffic tie-ups soon ensued on both sides of the East River, intensified by a demonstration by livery vehicle owners at City Hall.

“Motorists had a very tough day today,” sighed Traffic Commissioner Samuel Schwartz. “Today was a day I would like to forget.”

There were no injuries.

The summer madness came in a blistering heat wave and drought that has left the city’s residents reeling and its reservoirs barely half full. On Wednesday, Mayor Koch declared war on “water rats” who secretly fill their swimming pools or water their lawns at night, and ordered heavy fines for transgressors.