No Smoke, No Fire, No Outages from 'Askew' Manhole Cover

While no reason could be given for why a manhole cover was found partially raised at the intersection of Washington and Bank streets Thursday night, a Jersey Central Power and Light representative said a tripped fault could have been the cause.

A police officer reported the manhole cover "slightly askew" at that intersection at about 6:20 p.m. on Aug. 16, JCP&L spokesman Gerry Riccardi said, which prompted a closure and detour as utility crews investigated.

There, however, was no underground explosion–a touchy subject for Morristown given several incidents over the last few years, including . Most recently, , prompting .

"When that fault happened it could have caused something," Riccardi said. "But there was no fire, no smoke and no outages."

The fault was expected to be repaired by the end of Friday, the spokesman said.