More than 50,000 customers lose power as heatwave grips New York

NEW YORK (NYTIMES, BLOOMBERG) - More than 50,000 customers were without power in New York as the third day of dangerously hot weather continued to grip the region, officials said on Sunday (July 21).

Across the five boroughs, many New Yorkers stayed inside - and cranked up air conditioning. But by Sunday night, Consolidated Edison, which offers electricity to customers in the state of New York, said than 50,000 customers in New York City and up north in the county of Westchester were without electricity. Most of the power failures were in Brooklyn, it said.

"Con Edison advises customers in the affected areas to switch off or unplug electrical appliances to avoid potential damage to the appliances when power is restored," the utility company said in the statement.

"It is the third day of the heat wave, so the system is really baking at this point," company spokesman Alfonso Quiroz said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Twitter that 30,000 customers in Brooklyn would have their power turned off so Consolidated Edison could make necessary repairs to "prevent a bigger outage."

Fire officials said the soaring temperatures also may have contributed to a fire in Queens that killed a mother and daughter.

With temperatures more than 32 deg C by 8am Sunday, about 100 firefighters fought the heat and the flames on Sunday morning as a blaze tore through a house in Richmond Hill in Queens, killing a mother and her 7-year-old daughter, and critically injuring the woman's two teenage sons.

Fire Department officials said they were investigating whether the fire was linked to the family's air conditioner, which neighbours said was located on the first floor.

Police said Silvia Umana, 51, lived in the home with her daughter, Lupe Perez, and two sons, whom neighbours identified as Gilbert, 19, and Gabriel, 15. The younger boy escaped out a second-story window and was rescued by firefighters.

"They always complained about how hot their house was," said Tiffany Elahie, 14, a friend of the children who lived a few doors away.

It was a tragic coda to a sweltering heat wave that began Friday. In some neighbourhoods, the heat index reached more than 38 deg C .

New York fire officials said they had expanded emergency service crews in anticipation of a surge in calls, and since Friday had responded to more than 230 heat-related incidents, the majority involving older patients.

New York, like much of the country, has been struggling under intense heat, pushing officials in the city to declare a state of emergency. Meteorologists have issued extreme heat advisories stretching from the East Coast through the panhandle of Texas and the Midwest.

Consolidated Edison, which had forecast record demand this weekend, is facing scrutiny after an outage on July 13 left 72,000 customers in Manhattan's West Side without power.

Regulators have opened investigations into the incident, which darkened Times Square, interrupted subway service and forced Madison Square Garden to evacuate. Governor Andrew Cuomo called the incident "unacceptable."