A small section of Market Lane was closed this morning after steam began escaping from a pavement vent and filled the street with a dense white cloud. Two shopfronts disappeared from view, a delivery cart stopped somewhere inside it and one vegetable seller could be heard repeatedly announcing, “I am still here,” which engineers later described as the most useful location report they received.
City crews isolated the line within fifteen minutes. The vegetable seller continued trading through most of the incident, despite being unable to see his customers and, on two occasions, being asked the price of cabbages by people who were not entirely certain they were standing at his stall. He has since complained that the Gazette’s first description made him sound lost. He says the street was lost; he knew exactly where he was.
When the steam cleared, the cart was facing the wrong direction, a hanging shop sign had shifted several metres and the seller was still holding the same cabbage. Market Lane has reopened with a small repair barrier around the vent. The official incident record now describes the matter as “temporary loss of visibility involving one stationary vegetable merchant.” The merchant says this wording is acceptable.
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