Power outages left hundreds of Astoria residents without relief from the heat for hours on Tuesday as Con Edison crews worked to restore service. 

A Con Edison spokesperson told NY1 that weather and the city’s ongoing heat wave contributed to a cable fault that caused the outages. 

As of late Tuesday afternoon, Con Edison’s outage map still showed nearly 800 customers in the neighborhood without service. 

Some homes had been without power since Monday, including apartments in a building on Crescent Street near 31st Road, where residents reported hearing the circuit breakers blowing out. 

Others in the neighborhood reported seeing a power pole on fire and hearing some sort of explosion. 

“The lights started to go off back and forth, and then at nine we were told, the neighbors started gathering around, and that’s when the whole thing went out. And it started smelling like gas,” Astoria resident Larry Perez said. 

“People started calling that there was like, an explosion over there around like nine-ish,” resident Maria Campbell added. 

One resident, Akhter Hussain, said he had been staying in his car because his apartment was too hot, even though it doesn’t have air conditioning. He kept the windows down and drank bottles of water. 

Others said they spent most of their time since losing power outside. 

Con Edison says its crews will be distributing dry ice to customers without power in the parking lot of Long Island City High School, at Broadway and 12th Street, until 9 p.m. Tuesday, or until it runs out of supplies. 

The city is also operating 500 cooling centers, including library branches, which are open to the public.