Ow!

[conuly]

Woman permanently scarred by hot manhole cover

Eesh. At least it's better than being electrocuted. Note to self: Never, ever, ever, EVER step on anything metal. Ever.

Comments

[eofs.livejournal.com]

So was it hot because it had an electric current running through it? The article didn't explain (or if it did, I missed it.) Or was it for some other reason?

[conuly]

No idea. But there have been electric manholes before.

[literalgirl.livejournal.com]

That was the impression I got - that is wasn't just "hot from the sun". presumably they already make them so they wouldn't scar a person in typical use or exposure. :-)

BTW, this reminded me of a bunch of art I saw while in Toronto in July. I wish I cuold remember the name of the girls, but couple of girls have gone all around the world doing rubbings of manhole covers and turning them into hanging art. It's pretty interesting, and a restaurant near my stepfather's house is all decked out in (and selling) their artwork.

A quick Google to possibly locate the particular project that I saw some of the art from revealed this very interesting page, which I shall peruse more carefully later. :-) I just love the name of the site, though!

http://www.drainspotting.org/links.php

[conuly]

It's not even possible for "sunheat" if it happened recently... there's been no sun for over two weeks now! So it has to be a problem with the wiring or something down there.

[mortaine.livejournal.com]

It sounds like they don't know why it was hot. And it was temperature-hot ("red hot"), not electrified (the article is misleading because it mentions a woman who was electrified a few weeks ago near the same spot, but they are unrelated cases).

My question is: if the manhole cover was actually "red hot," why did she skateboard near it in the first place?

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Well that's what threw me - I didn't think it said "the manhole cover was electrified" anywhere. But since it didn't say why it was hot, and they were talking about electrified manhole covers elsewhere due to insufficient checks, and she's thinking of taking action... I did the only thing I could do and, in abscence of the actual explanation, cobbled one together.

There's no harm in saying "for reasons unknown" Mr Journalist person (or Mrs Journalist person - I'm an equal opportunities groucher.)

[conuly]

Few months ago, not a few weeks. And I think they are related, because Con Ed was supposed to have checked out all the manholes in that area, make sure nothing was awry. There clearly WAS something awry there, even if it wasn't electrified.

[stejcruetekie.livejournal.com]

Something that is "red hot" could very well be electrified - think of a space heater with the glowing orange rods.

It's possible the cover *was* electrified, but wasn't at the time the woman stepped on it - maybe stepping on it bumped the wire loose.