Special report: The Great New York Telephone Fire: The Bell System marshaled its impressive resources to assess and repair damage in record time

On February 27, 1975, at approximately 12:15 a.m., a fire broke out in a New York Telephone Company central office, located at 13th Street and Second Avenue in New York City´s Borough of Manhattan. The fire, which started in the building´s basement cable vault, raged out of control, damaging or totally destroying millions of dollars worth of telephone equipment. The result: an unprecedented, total telephone communications blackout in the affected subscriber area, and its environs, disrupting service to over 160 000 residential and business subscribers.