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.