Grand Central Brought to Halt By Cable Fire
|
|
A huge machine that levels the tracks leading into Grand Central Terminal snagged a 600-volt electrical cable in a tunnel beneath Park Avenue yesterday, sending up a shower of sparks and flames that injured 11 railroad workers and 2 firefighters. Train service was halted for hours, and thousands of commuters were delayed. A huge machine that levels the tracks leading into Grand Central Terminal snagged a 600-volt electrical cable in a tunnel beneath Park Avenue yesterday, sending up a shower of sparks and flames that injured 11 railroad workers and 2 firefighters. Train service was halted for hours, and thousands of commuters were delayed. The cable popped, hissed and sputtered as Metro-North maintenance workers scrambled to emergency exits. Then it short-circuited and ignited a fire that sent smoke pouring up, into the lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel at 50th Street and puffing out of sidewalk vents along Park Avenue. Grand Central, five blocks away, was filled with an eye-stinging haze that had wafted from the tunnel. Conductors closed the wrought-iron gates to the vaultlike departure platforms, and a frazzled sea of suits and topcoats bobbed beneath the electronic signs that display departure times. More : query.nytimes.com |