New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

There was a boom; then a hum. The lights flickered. A giant plume of smoke filled the New York City sky, and turned it blue. From a report: 'A sort of unnatural, fluorescent shade of blue,' said Bill San Antonio, 28, who was watching Thursday night from inside a terminal at La Guardia Airport. 'We thought it was a U.F.O.,' said Yiota Androtsakis, a longtime Astoria resident. Ms. Androtsakis was not the only one. In the earliest moments, hundreds of Twitter users from across the city posted videos of the eerie lights, causing many on social media to fear an alien invasion.

By late Thursday night officials said the event was caused by nothing more than a transformer explosion. 'No injuries, no fire, no evidence of extraterrestrial activity,' the New York Police Department tweeted, adding later that the explosion was not suspicious. There was one Con Edison employee nearby when the fire started, and the authorities said he was unharmed. Still, Deputy Inspector Osvaldo Nunez, the commanding officer of the 114th Precinct, conceded that the episode 'was spectacular.' 'You could see it from the precinct, and the precinct is about a half-mile away,' he said. 'You felt it in your chest, the explosions, and the night sky turned an electric blue.'

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