FDNY: Blaze Near Penn Station Deemed Accidental Electrical Fire
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Fire officials were investigating late Tuesday, after an early-morning fire ripped through two floors of a Long Island Rail Road underground construction site at Penn Station.
As CBS2's Alice Gainer reported, fire marshals determined Tuesday afternoon that the fire was accidental and electrical in nature.
The FDNY said the fire was in an area of temporary wiring used for lighting in an underground construction site at 34th Street and Eighth Avenue.
The fire broke out just before 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. When firefighters arrived, FDNY Chief James Leonard said crews found heavy fire conditions in the area of the West End Concourse of the LIRR.
"We had two levels of fire down there, an extensive amount of fire which did cause structural damage to the station," Leonard said.
As the blaze raged, flames could be seen shooting violently out of the ground over the concourse.
Leonard said 150 firefighters responded to the scene and were able to bring the blaze under control by around 5:30 a.m. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries.
As a plume of smoke rose, neighboring residents were told to leave.
"When I was evacuating the building, there was strong smoke in the elevator," said neighbor Calvin Liu.
Hours later, the West End Concourse at Penn Station was covered in soot and hoses. A faint smell of smoke remained in the air as late as the late afternoon.
The construction site will eventually become the new Moynihan Station. Crews have been working to expand the concourse through to the Post Office building across Eighth Avenue.
Engineers were on hand Tuesday afternoon to assess the damage from both the fire and the water used to put it out.
FDNY Investigating Fire Near Penn Station
"There's a lot of steel down there that supports the street; supports the station. They're pouring new concrete," Leonard said. "Anytime you have a fire impinging on steel, you have the possibility of steel being damaged, and there's a possibility of further collapse."
Following the fire, some morning commuters on the LIRR were diverted to other trains, and some subway lines bypassed the 34th Street-Penn Station stop.
The LIRR said some trains were diverted to Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn or Hunters Point Avenue in Queens during the morning rush. Some trains also were canceled at Jamaica Terminal in Queens.
"I heard on the speakers that they're being canceled," commuter Doris Ortiz told CBS2's Diane Macedo.
"I'm going to Merrick at the Babylon train and they say it's canceled," said commuter Mercedes Broski. "I need now to go to Ronkonkoma or to Jamaica."
FDNY Investigating Fire Near Penn Station
But eventually, service was returned to normal.
With all the tracks having been repaired late Tuesday, evening commuters had no problems to report.
"It's better than it was this morning," said Eddie Menn of Long Island. "I had to divert a bit; take the A Train instead of the E Train."
LIRR spokesman Sal Arena said the West End Concourse, which is a pedestrian area, remains closed.
"We're going to have to do some work to get that part of Penn Station's concourse open again. My understanding is that it's closed because of smoke and fire damage," he told 1010 WINS.
The fire at Penn came less than a day after a deadly incident in the Washington, D.C. Metrorail system.
Smoke filled a Virginia-bound yellow line train that had just left the L'Enfant Plaza station in downtown Washington, one of the system's busiest stations.
One woman was killed and dozens of others were hurt, two of them critically.
Passengers on the train were terrified.
"People were just getting out of hand, they were panicking," one rider said. "The next thing you know, you couldn't see from one end to the other on the train."
The smoke was apparently caused by an electrical problem. The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating the incident.
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