Manhole fire forces evacuation of downtown building, shuts down streets

They have no place to stand but the street. Many were Bruggers and Starbucks employees who were expected to stick around until they could get back in. Most of the office workers went for coffee.

I used the crosswalk and there was no one stopping people from doing so.

This is one of my complaints with the proposed megatower on Federal St.: when we have a fire or a fire drill or BoA has a fire or fire drill, there is already no place on the street for evacuees - let alone space for them to be clear of the building. People aren't actively told to go elsewhere and are probably discouraged from doing so by their employers.

We had a fire in the building a few weeks back, and just the people from our 30 story tower alone packed out Federal and Devonshire streets. My boss called an "offsite meeting" and we headed for a local bar - not all bosses will do that.

Commercial/office buildings, when either power or water go out for any reason including maintenance, are always evacuated or kept closed. This is because without both power and water in the building a number of safety and security systems do not function and for liability reasons they don't want the building occupied just in case something does occur.

I used to work in 230 Congress St (pictured for the article - 211 is behind the viewpoint) and that building was frequently "Shut down" due to power or water loss both due to accidents and maintenance work.