In May, Dow Chemical said it would tap a strain of Solazyme algal oil for use in electrical transformer insulating fluids.

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One wire poked out, connecting the device to an electrical transformer.

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An electrical transformer station on 14th Street exploded during the night as well, ruining power to most of lower Manhattan and, incidentally, the Forbes headquarters on Fifth Avenue.

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And for Ms. Vanacore's 29-year-old son, Michael, it happened at the height of the storm, as he watched a distant electrical transformer explode into flames from his neighbor's fifth-floor apartment.

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Drucker cited the case of companies making heavy electrical switching gear for powerhouses and transformer stations.

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