This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/nyregion/metro-north-service-fire.html

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Metro-North Restores Limited Service After Fire Fire Under Metro-North Tracks Caused by Fuel Spill
(about 9 hours later)
The effects of an intense fire that swept through a garden center beneath the Metro-North Railroad tracks in East Harlem on Tuesday night disrupted travel for thousands of commuters on Wednesday morning. With Metro-North Railroad service expected to be disrupted for several days after a fire damaged a stretch of track in East Harlem, government officials on Wednesday questioned why a garden center under the tracks was using flammable substances.
As firefighters battled the blaze on Tuesday, service was suspended to and from Grand Central Terminal at the height of the evening rush, and after the fire was extinguished, hundreds of workers scrambled to assess the damage. The fire on Tuesday at the Urban Garden Center on Park Avenue was caused by a fuel spill when workers were refilling a generator, fire officials said. The blaze then tore through an area filled with combustible materials, said Jim Long, a Fire Department spokesman.
Tom Prendergast, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said trains would run on a Saturday schedule until Friday and he advised riders to check their local schedules. “Everything in there was pretty much incinerated,” he said.
The fire severely damaged a column that supports the center tracks and that would take some time to repair, he said. The support structures on the outside tracks were stable, he said, allowing the authority to provide limited service. Firefighters removed propane tanks from the business, Mr. Long said, but it was unclear whether any had exploded in the fire. The business had not been issued any permits for the handling or storage of fuel or propane, Mr. Long said.
“It is a pretty old structure,” Mr. Prendergast said, speaking Wednesday morning on NY1. Asked about the propane tanks in an interview on NY1, Thomas F. Prendergast, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said the matter demanded investigation.
For most riders early Wednesday morning, the limited service meant headaches and crowding, but many said it could have been worse. “Should we have material like that stored under such a vital, critical piece of infrastructure?” he said. “That’s a question that needs to be asked and answered.”
Ruben Henao, 31, the director of student life at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., was on his way to the school’s commencement. The fire damaged the railroad’s elevated structure, causing train service to be suspended during the evening rush. On Wednesday, trains were running on a limited Saturday schedule, creating arduous delays for commuters.
He was planning to take the 7:11 a.m. train to Ardsley on the Hudson line, but it wasn’t expected to arrive until 7:42. Full service was not likely to resume until Friday, officials said. While workers made repairs on Wednesday, trains were running on two outer tracks, and two inner tracks were closed.
“I’m running a little behind,” Mr. Henao said, sipping an iced mocha. “The ceremony doesn’t start until 10 o’clock but I was trying to get in early today. My coordinator called to tell me about the delays. And now I have coffee on my shirt. It’s not my day. New York City owns the property under the tracks, and the city’s Economic Development Corporation manages a lease held by the Urban Garden Center. Tenants must adhere to “all relevant laws and regulations,” the agency’s senior vice president, Anthony Hogrebe, said in a statement.
“I’m optimistic we’ll get there just on time,” he said, laughing. “But we have graduates that will probably be late. We have graduates that use the Harlem line, and it was affected too.” “If anything is found to have been in violation, we will take swift and appropriate action,” he said.
Until further notice, the Harlem, Hudson and New Haven lines will be running on a Saturday schedule, to and from Grand Central Terminal. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a Democrat, echoed Mr. Prendergast’s concerns and called on federal safety officials to investigate the fire.
Commuters on the Hudson line can take the No. 4, B or D trains to the 161st Street-Yankee Stadium subway station to connect to the Yankees-East 153rd Street station on Metro-North, the transportation authority said. Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday that he had not known that the Economic Development Corporation managed the property, but said that it was appropriate for businesses to be located under the tracks and praised the row of shops along Park Avenue, known as La Marqueta. He said the city would examine safety precautions there.
Commuters on the Harlem line can take the No. 2 train to 241st Street to connect to the Wakefield Metro-North station. “If there is anything we need to strengthen, we will,” Mr. de Blasio told reporters.
And commuters on the New Haven line can take the No. 2 train to 233rd Street to connect to the Woodlawn Metro-North station. At the garden center on Wednesday morning, workers loaded wooden planks and charred debris into a demolition truck to be crushed. A separate part of the garden center remained operational, with nearly a dozen chickens clucking in a coop and an array of trees and flowers crowded between bags of concrete mix and mulch. Workers declined to comment on the fire.
Mr. Prendergast said that the fire highlighted how vulnerable the system was to disruption since there is no alternative if there is a problem on the line to Grand Central Terminal. He has been pressing for an alternative link to Pennsylvania Station in the event that there is a problem on the line. Dwayne Thomas, an emergency medical worker who has lived in East Harlem for 10 years, said he had been wary of the garden center for some time, especially since a deadly gas explosion nearby in 2014. The explosion, which destroyed two apartment buildings and killed eight people, occurred on Park Avenue near 116th Street, a short distance from where the fire broke out on Tuesday. The Urban Garden Center was heavily damaged in that blast.
The cause of the fire was still under investigation, but there were questions about the storage of propane tanks — some of which were reported to have exploded during the fire — under such a vital part of infrastructure. “Why would you put a bunch of flammable items below a train track?” said Mr. Thomas, 55. “The whole thing is a recipe for disaster.”
“That is a question that needs to be asked and answered,” Mr. Prendergast said. Luis Diaz said he was flipping burgers at Kyle Restaurant and Grill on Park Avenue on Tuesday evening when he heard a loud explosion followed by a series of smaller blasts. He rushed outside to see plumes of black smoke billowing from the train tracks between 117th and 118th Streets.
The fire, which broke out around 6:40 p.m. at 119th Street and Park Avenue, was fueled in part by chemicals stored at a garden nursery that operated underneath the tracks, officials said. Mr. Diaz said he had gone to get a fire extinguisher but soon realized the extent of the inferno.
It grew to a four-alarm inferno, sending a plume of smoke over northern Manhattan. “It was terrifying,” he said. “We were all caught by surprise. It just got worse and worse.”
More than 130 firefighters battled the blaze for more than two hours before it was brought under control. The Metro-North’s Harlem, Hudson and New Haven lines were running with delays of 60 to 80 minutes on Wednesday. On Thursday, the railroad planned to run additional trains to provide about 75 percent of its usual weekday service, officials said.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo went to the scene on Tuesday night and vowed to get service restored as quickly as possible. At Grand Central Terminal on Wednesday morning, Adam Vaughn said his typical 90-minute commute had taken three hours on Tuesday night. Mr. Vaughn, who lives in the East Village and works in Stamford, Conn., was not optimistic about the days ahead.
“The heat of the fire was extreme,” Mr. Cuomo said, adding that it was so intense that firefighters could hear bolts popping from the beams. “I’m not even close to getting to work on time today,” he said. “I might work from home for the rest of the week.”
Thousands of commuters at Grand Central Terminal were stranded for hours, many with little information. The main hall was packed with people standing nearly shoulder to shoulder.
Nicole Clarke, of Rye, N.Y., said she waited at Grand Central for 30 minutes before abandoning plans to take Metro-North.
“When I got to that place, it was a mess,” Ms. Clarke said. “They couldn’t tell us anything, nothing.”
On Wednesday morning, some commuters were surprised to learn that their regular morning trains had been canceled, but most took it in stride.
Kate Millspaugh, a nurse at Memorial Sloan Kettering Westchester in West Harrison, was texting her boss to say she would not make her 8 a.m. rounds.
“I didn’t even know who to ask when I got here,” she said. “I’m just hanging out until the next train.”
Kate Stamaris commutes to South Norwalk, Conn., every morning and had been waiting 45 minutes on Wednesday morning for the next train out of Grand Central.
“Things happen,” she said. “I wish there was better communication on social media or updating the app.”