Manhole fire causes explosions downtown

A malfunctioning underground electrical transformer caused explosions Wednesday evening outside a Northwest Washington restaurant.

No injuries were reported, but flames shot eight to 10 feet high, and black smoke poured from sidewalk grates and manholes outside Panache in the 1700 block of Desales Street NW about 7:30 p.m.

D.C. firefighters went to the scene. According to preliminary reports, an underground Pepco transformer produced the fire and smoke, officials said. About 8:30 p.m., the fire department tweeted that firefighters had “checked adjacent buildings and found no threat or power outages.”