Underground blast rattles downtown

Authorities shut down Main Avenue in downtown Spokane after an explosion popped the covers off manholes outside River Park Square and sent up a plume of smoke so thick that witnesses said they couldn’t see from one side of the street to the other.

“You know when you were a kid in camp and you set off smoke bombs?” said Jennifer Olsen, who stepped out of Starbucks just after the explosion. “It was that yellowish color.”

This was no prank or protesters’ attention-getter. Rather, it was an underground power line, said Don Schrader, an Avista cableman who showed up to let everyone know all was well and helped kick the manhole covers back into place.

“There’s just a splice down in the hole that blew up,” Schrader said, as firefighters pulled down the yellow “caution” tape and police started letting traffic through. “It was probably put in in the ‘40s, something like that.”

Thus ended a mystery that had bystanders speculating, though none seemed particularly worried.

“Spokane does get its share of excitement,” said one woman, leaving the mall with shopping bags.