"dozens of firefighters worked throughout the day to identify what was first deemed 'a black tarry substance' and later morphed into a 'watery mud.' ... there was a gooey substance, a tarry-type substance, coming out the underground electrical vaults, out of manhole covers in the street, through the sidewalks and possibly in one older apartment building ... Sidewalks were as hot as Jacuzzis. And a pressurized liquid shot from every street orifice"