Hundreds without power in Coney Island after transformer fire

Hundreds of people lost power in Coney Island, Brooklyn, after a transformer went up in flames on Wednesday morning.

Firefighters said they received a call just before 7 a.m. about a transformer and car on fire on West 36th Street between Surf and Neptune avenues.

Hours-long power outage

Two power lines fell down and damaged two cars. Video from the scene showed a pole engulfed in flames and a car crushed underneath. Heavy smoke was seen in the area as the FDNY responded.

Officials say nobody was hurt.

"That's dangerous because somebody could have been in those cars, or somebody walking on that side of the street," neighbor Cynthia Brown said.

Several neighbors said that one of the poles was leaning in the weeks leading up to its collapse.

"They'd been leaning, but I didn't expect it to fall on somebody's car like that," Brown said. "Next time, when I see something like that, I'll call 311."

Con Edison did not respond to multiple request for a statement about the leaning pole.

The utility's outage map reported almost 900 customers out of service at first. Most power was restored by 9:45 a.m., but as of 7 p.m., about 150 customers remained in the dark with no estimated time of restoration.

No service during extreme heat

Homeowners in Sea Gate said they were left without power for several hours.

"It was about 7 a.m., I heard the phone, the landline blinking on and off. That's when I realized that the electricity was off," resident Debra Packer said. "I just realized that this [downed pole] is the reason, and it wasn't the air conditioning."

"It's a lot of people suffering. There's a lot of people that need oxygen and all kinds of things, and they can't get it right now," resident James Kinard said.

The outage came as New Yorkers braced for another day of extreme weather. A heat advisory is in place until 9 p.m., with feels-like temperatures ranging from 95 to 105 degrees.

Resident Tommy Shuler said he faced the oppressive heat as he came outside to look at the damage.

"It's cooler out here for me because you have a breeze coming down here," he said.