Brooklyn Marine escapes explosion outside own home

A Marine who dodged bombs in Iraq narrowly missed an explosion outside his Crown Heights home Thursday when a manhole cover blew up under his SUV just minutes after he left it.

“About two minutes before it exploded, I parked there,” a shaken Nigel Edinborough told The Daily News. “I get to the fifth floor and I hear it — Boom! It could have been me.”

The 31-year-old iron worker reportedly didn’t realize it was his vehicle until he saw news coverage on TV of his incinerated 2002 Ford Escape.

A Con Edison spokesman confirmed that several manhole covers exploded along Empire Boulevard near Rogers and Nostrand avenues early Thursday, destroying Edinborough’s car and knocking out power to 236 customers.

No injuries were reported.

Melted snow and road salt seeped underground causing the fiery reaction, said Con Edison spokesman Allan Drury.