A maintenance train meant to keep subway tracks clean caught fire beneath Astor Place before dawn Tuesday, sending six MTA workers and five firefighters to hospitals and throwing lower Manhattan service into disarray. The blaze hit a station used by the No. 6 line, turning an overnight cleanup run into a major emergency response.
FDNY said the vacuum train caught fire inside the Astor Place station just before 2:15 a.m., and the incident was classified as a second-alarm fire. About 46 firefighting units were sent to the NoHo station, according to New York Post, which reported that six Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers and five firefighters were taken to area hospitals. One MTA worker refused treatment, while another was evaluated at the scene; FDNY did not immediately provide details about the hospitalized workers' conditions.
4, 5 And 6 Service Disrupted Across Lower Manhattan
Subway service between Grand Central–42 St. and Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall was unavailable in both directions while crews handled the fire, and No. 4 and No. 6 service was partially suspended. The MTA recommended M15, M102 and M103 buses, while riders could use the N, Q or R trains as alternatives, according to the agency's service alerts. The disruption affected the Lexington Avenue corridor between two major Manhattan transfer points.
The Train Was Built To Prevent Track Fires
The equipment involved was not a regular passenger train but one of the MTA's vacuum trains, specialized work equipment used to clear debris from the track bed. CBS New York has described the so-called VakTrak as a machine that sucks up garbage and other combustible material from subway tracks to help prevent fires and service disruptions. Tuesday's blaze underscored the risks faced by the crews sent underground to keep that infrastructure operating.
No cause was immediately disclosed in the initial reports, and officials had not released the conditions of those hospitalized as of Tuesday morning. The incident remained under investigation while responders worked to secure the station and transit officials dealt with the resulting delays, according to the New York Post.
