For the second time since New Year’s Eve a manhole on Purdy Avenue has caught fire.

The most recent incident ignited at 11:32 p.m. on Feb. 24 and took about an hour before local firefighters were able to control it. Firefighters flooded the manhole with water eventually extinguishing the fire; they remained at the scene for three hours, according to Fire Lt. Jim Dianni. No injuries were reported and no one lost power.

Bob McGee, a spokesperson for Con Edison, said the incident began as a pole and manhole fire due to a cable burnout. The manhole, located between McCullough Place and Purchase Street along Purdy Avenue, quickly ignited and began smoking again after firefighters first put the blaze out; it was again controlled. “We responded, cut the defective service and restored power by about 5 a.m.,” McGee added.

Back on Dec. 31, 2009 another manhole on Purdy Avenue, just up the block from last Wednesday’s incident, caught fire leading to several explosions, power outages and street closures. The manhole exploded near the CVS building when underground power cables began burning. Street closures also took place on Purdy and a portion of Boston Post Road.

CVS, Rye Post Office, Wachovia Bank and Shell gas station all lost power temporarily in that incident; the post office was evacuated due to smoke. CVS did not reopen until the following day. The Rye Police Department was forced to use its backup generator due to the outages.

Purdy Avenue was closed for the remainder of the day; only a single lane of traffic was reopened on New Year’s Day. Con Edison spent several days at the scene repairing power cables.

No one was injured and no property damage was sustained in that incident either.