catastrophic fireball?

A sewage treatment plant in Harlem nearly exploded into a "catastrophic" fireball during the 2003 blackout - a disaster only averted by a city worker armed with an old broomstick, new records show.

The dangerous near disaster, never revealed by the city, was detailed this week in federal court documents as part of a plea agreement with the city's Department of Environmental Protection.

Under the deal, the DEP admitted that it failed to maintain backup generators at a sewage treatment plant in Red Hook, Brooklyn - causing some 30 million gallons of raw sewage to dump into the East River during the August 2003 blackout.

But records also show that DEP screwups at another plant, the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant between 137th and 145th Sts. on the Hudson River in Harlem, nearly caused a huge fireball that could have threatened nearby homes.

"We have been advised," wrote U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia in a memo to the court last month, "that this situation created the risk of a catastrophic explosion near a residential neighborhood."