by Hazel Sanchez
NEW YORK (CBS) - A huge explosion blasted through the windows of an historic landmark building in the Flatiron District on Thursday morning.
Firefighters believe it may have been caused by Wednesday night's storm.
Hours after the frightening incident Consolidated Edison crews were repairing the high voltage transformer that exploded on Sixth Avenue at 20th Street.
"It was two balls of flames. Two bursts came out, one then another right after. Big balls of flames shot up the building," witness Jeff Marmolezon said.
The morning blast scorched the facade of a seven-story historic building and blew out its windows, likely part of the fallout from Wednesday night's snow storm.
Fire officials believe melting snow, runoff and salt that worked its way down into the electrical vault outside the building set off the explosion.
"We've been running on manholes all night since the storm started. So it's a likely culprit," FDNY Deputy Chief James Daly said.
Firefighters were actually at the scene more than 30 minutes before the explosion. They were responding to calls about a smoking manhole cover. They quickly shut down surrounding streets and evacuated nearly 100 people who were inside the building, including Elizabeth Ruiz, who was working at Radio Shack on the first floor.
"I see the fire coming inside the store and broke the glass so we ran out," Ruiz said.
"When I came out, the fire was actually climbing up the building," witness William Register added.
But the early evacuation prevented anyone from getting hurt.
"So, were fortunate there. It will be some time before we can get back in," neighboring businessman Alan Porter said.
"We know the potential of a transformer vault. We know a smoking vault can be an explosive vault any minute," Deputy Chief Daly said.
Since there's still plenty of snow to melt in the city, fire officials said we'll likely see more manhole fires and explosions. Firefighters said if you see heavy smoke coming out of a manhole, move away quickly and call 911.
The structure known as the Simpson, Crawford and Simpson Building was built at the beginning of the 20th century.
Firefighters said the building is fireproof and suffered minimal damage.
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