{"id":420605,"date":"2026-10-06T21:28:38","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T21:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/420605\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T21:28:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T21:28:38","slug":"war-zone-underground-fire-tears-craters-into-tallahassee-downtown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/420605\/","title":{"rendered":"‘War zone’: Underground fire tears craters into Tallahassee downtown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Downtown Tallahassee looked like a scene from a disaster movie<\/a> after underground electrical fires ripped two massive craters in the middle of Monroe Street between the Leon County Courthouse and the Capitol Complex.<\/p>\n

The incident, which happened in the pre-dawn hours on Oct. 6, prompted much of downtown to shut down<\/a> while emergency crews rushed to make repairs using a small fleet of heavy equipment. Officials said no one was injured in the incident.<\/p>\n

The underground fire caused manhole covers \u2013 usually made of cast iron and weighing anywhere from 100 to 200 pounds each \u2013 to blow into the air. They were ejected with such force that some were seen in pieces nearby.<\/p>\n

The cause of the fire was unclear but a city news release noted that the “bulk of the impacts occurred on Monroe Street between Jefferson Street and Apalachee Parkway in the area of a paving project being facilitated by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).”<\/p>\n

A photo shared with the Tallahassee Democrat showed fire belching from a manhole. Smoke was still rising from some open manholes after sunrise as police directed traffic away from the scene.<\/p>\n

Underground fire causes explosions, traffic delays in Tallahassee<\/p>\n

1 of 6<\/p>\n

Photos show street damage and fire coming out of manhole in downtown Tallahassee, early on Oct. 6, 2026 (Provided by Ace Pedroso)<\/p>\n

Pieces of asphalt from the road around the manholes lay on sidewalks nearby, another telltale sign of the explosive power from the subterranean fire.<\/p>\n

“Looks like a war zone,” one person noted on Facebook.<\/p>\n

As of 11 a.m., crews on scene were still spraying water into open manholes and warning people not to get too close to any manhole “for their safety.”<\/p>\n

Incident began with courthouse fire alarm and closed roads for hours<\/p>\n

The Tallahassee Fire Department said it responded to a fire alarm at the county courthouse at 5:15 a.m. “Crews quickly arrived on scene and found several fires in the roadways and visible damage that caused traffic impacts near Monroe Street, Apalachee Parkway and Calhoun Street,” a news release said.<\/p>\n

The incident shut down the courthouse and numerous nearby offices and businesses, including the county annex, many of which lost power during a planned outage conducted by the city afterward to assess damage.<\/p>\n

\"City<\/p>\n

City of Tallahassee road crews make emergency repairs on Monroe Street downtown after an underground fire-related incident ripped two large craters in the roadway on Oct. 6, 2026.<\/p>\n

Roads surrounding the courthouse were still closed approaching midday Tuesday, including Monroe and Calhoun streets and Apalachee Parkway. Police began directing pedestrians, as well as cars, away from the scene.<\/p>\n

“The courthouse is closed \u2013 all day,” one officer shouted to a motorist who was trying to get there.<\/p>\n

Though the damage was mostly limited to Monroe Street, initially authorities set up a wide perimeter around downtown, barring motorists and passengers. By 11 a.m., northbound lanes of Monroe Street were opened to traffic, though city officials warned drivers that crews are continuing “assessment and repair.”<\/p>\n

“If you must travel in the area, please proceed with caution,” the city wrote.<\/p>\n

At about 4:10 p.m., the city said all roads have been patched and reopened, including Calhoun Street and Monroe Street, which bore the brunt of the damage.<\/p>\n

Frank Allman, chief judge of the 2nd Judicial Circuit, released a statement that “ALL court proceedings” were canceled, in part because the fire had cut off the IT systems that keep the justice system on track: “There’s just no point in trying to go forward with anything until further notice,” he said.<\/p>\n

Still another police officer told a reporter that the area was not safe without a hard hat. However, a few people still tried to make their way around on foot.<\/p>\n

\"Pieces<\/p>\n

Pieces of a manhole cover could be seen on Pensacola Street in downtown Tallahassee on Oct. 6, 2026, following an underground fire-related incident.<\/p>\n

“You can’t get there from here,” said William Barnes, who had gone to the courthouse to watch a proceeding involving a friend. “I don’t think anybody’s going to court today.”<\/p>\n

Matt Adams, who works at Metro Deli, said his boss called him around 6 a.m. telling him about reports of explosions and asking if everything was OK. The business, at 104 S. Monroe St., was unscathed but the power went out around 7:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

‘Pieces of the road, flying up in the air’<\/p>\n

Adams said he spoke to a delivery driver that morning who was on Pensacola Street downtown “right beside it” when the incident occurred.<\/p>\n

“He thought it was a lightning strike because he saw pieces of the road, like flying up in the air,” he said. “He heard a loud boom and looked over and saw pieces falling out of the sky.”<\/p>\n

Adams and others wondered what might have happened if the fire had occurred in the middle of the day, when downtown is full of cars and pedestrians.<\/p>\n

Leon County Administrator Vince Long, in an email briefing commissioners, said public safety agencies believed the incident was an underground electrical fire rather than a gas leak.<\/p>\n

“Several manhole covers were blown loose, and crews on scene reported a smell of natural gas,” he said. “TFD has a hazmat unit on scene, and TPD is still working to determine exactly what happened.”<\/p>\n

While a Tallahassee Democrat photographer found natural gas caps lying in the road at the Park and Franklin road intersection, a city spokesperson said investigators have determined natural gas was not involved in the fire or manhole ruptures.<\/p>\n

As of 11 a.m. there were 15 power outages listed on the city’s online outage map, affecting more than 150 customers, with many clustered around downtown. By noon, the city said downtown power was completely restored, though the connection to a couple traffic signals remained on the blink and may have been damaged by the fires.<\/p>\n

It’s unclear if the underground fires caused other infrastructure damage. But the Leon County Sheriff’s Office said that it would not be allowing in-person visitations at the Leon County Jail, citing “ongoing infrastructure impacts.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A pile of broken up asphalt surrounds the area by a manhole on North Monroe Street as utility workers and first responders work an active scene of a \u201cfire-related incident\u201d Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026.<\/p>\n

Tuesday’s blaze, though underground, was the latest to hit the state capital’s downtown. In July, dozens of first responders helped evacuate people at the Museum of Florida History after the building caught fire<\/a>, with flames making their way into the walls.<\/p>\n

And in April, clouds of white smoke billowed from the front of the Florida Historic Capitol<\/a> Museum, the second time in under a year that fire or smoke affected the building. Fire officials said that blaze originated in “an exterior construction site and extended into the building.”<\/p>\n

This story contains previously published reporting. Jim Rosica and Sarah Cheatham contributed. Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: ‘War zone’: Underground fire tears craters into Tallahassee downtown<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Downtown Tallahassee looked like a scene from a disaster movie after underground electrical fires ripped two massive craters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-420605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}