Power outages very briefly in parts of New York City

A temporary power outage left flickering lights in parts of New York City late Thursday night, authorities said, followed by what witnesses described as an explosion and billowing smoke at an electrical substation in Brooklyn.

Con Edison, the electric, gas and steam utility that serves New York City and Westchester County, said at 11:55 p.m. that there was “an outage on a high-voltage transmission line” at its Brooklyn substation.

“Customers may have experienced a power dip or surge at that time,” Con Edison said in a statement early Friday. “Crews are investigating and working to make necessary repairs.”

The New York Fire Department said firefighters responded to power outages and stuck elevators at locations across the city early Friday.

“We do not have a single address to narrow it down to,” the fire department said in a statement, adding that they were fielding “reports and calls at various locations.”

According to a spokesperson for Grand Central Station, all elevators and escalators were out of service rack of Long Island Rail Road, the rail system that extends from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island.

Witnesses overlooking the substation described the lights in their apartments flashing quickly twice, followed by the explosion in the substation. People shared their stories about the outage and explosion on social media.

“The lights flickered briefly twice,” Sean Scott, 30, a software engineer who was at home in Manhattan, said by phone. “I looked outside and saw street lights flickering.”

“Then I felt a soft pop and saw a fireball and saw the smoke,” added Mr. Scott, who said he had a view of most of Brooklyn from his apartment.

Anna Di, 32, a chiropractor in Manhattan, described the explosion as an “orange glow” that disappeared within seconds, leaving behind gray smoke billowing from the substation.

“It was just shocking to see this fireball over the water,” she said by phone.