An Amtrak work train broke out in flames near New York’s Penn Station on Friday morning, injuring five workers and disrupting rail service into midtown for thousands of commuters.
The two-alarm blaze erupted at around 1:30 a.m. when the FDNY received reports of an Amtrak work train car on fire on track 11 in one of the Hudson River Tunnels, according to fire and NJ Transit officials.
Forty-six units and 141 personnel responded to the blaze.
Two victims were transported to Bellevue Hospital with serious injuries, the FDNY said. The remaining three individuals refused treatment.
All five victims are transit workers, an FDNY official told reporters.
Overhead wiring was damaged along track 11, which forced the New Jersey Transit and Long Island Railroad to suspend service into the busy Manhattan station.
New Jersey Transit redirected its Midtown Direct service to Hoboken, where passengers holding rail tickets and passes will be transferred to private buses and PATH and taken to the 33rd Street station in NYC.
All Long Island lines are facing delays and cancellations. LIRR passengers can expect trains to be diverted to Grand Central or Long Island City.
Amtrak temporarily suspended all service south of New York as crews conduct work on the track and signal.
“Due to unforeseen track and signal maintenance resulting from a now extinguished fire in the New York area, all services traveling south of New York (NYP) are temporarily suspended,” Amtrak said on X.
The suspensions south of the Big Apple are expected to last several hours until at least noon, with northern lines also being hit with “lengthy delays.”
“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may cause. Updates to follow as more information becomes available,” the statement added.
At least eight Amtrak trains bound for or leaving New York were canceled Friday.
Because of the burning train’s location, firefighters were forced to enter the tracks through an access door at 10th Avenue and West 32nd.
“We had to go through an emergency exit to extinguish the fire, that was the closest option to us. It would have been a significantly difficult stretch of the hose line to go through actually Penn Station itself so we had to go through the emergency exit,” FDNY Deputy Chief Michael Barvels said, according to ABC 7.
“Very heavy smoke condition, high heat, a lot of hazards down there, tripping hazards, electrical hazards, but out units, we’re trained for this,” Barvels added.
Crews got the fire under control at 4:05 a.m., and an investigation into the cause is ongoing.
A timeline on when the service would be reopened was not revealed.
This is a developing story
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