NEW YORK CITY (ENN) - In the second time in less than a week, NYC emergency personnel were again mobilized for an explosion and fire in the NYC Transit System that initially was believed to be an actual bomb, but was later determined to, again, be electrical in nature.
May 1st, at around 1845 hrs., EDT, FDNY, NYPD, and EMS, responded to the midtown Manhattan location of East 51 Street and Lexington Ave., for a report of multiple explosions with a fire in the subway tunnel of the very heavily traveled Lexington Ave. Subway line. NYPD Police Officer Russell Dietz was one of the first officers on the scene and stated that he heard two explosions from the subway grating on the sidewalk on Lexington Ave.
He immediately went into the subway system and found a heavy smoke condition and many passengers attempting to exit the subway. Dietz reported that a third explosion occurred while he was in the station. These reports and the potential life hazard caused the Fire Department to transmit a second alarm almost immediately.
The Lexington Ave. subway line is the most heavily traveled line in the NYC system, going north and south on Manhattan's East Side. As a result of the emergency, all train traffic was halted and power was ordered shut off on the third rail. Numerous trains were stranded in the tunnels between stations throughout the length of the line in Manhattan. Fire units attacked the fire that was visible from under one of the trains and it was soon determined by Transit officials that the preliminary cause of the explosion was the power transformers underneath the subway cars, and not a terrorist act.
However, the evacuation of passengers from the numerous stranded trains had to still be addressed. In addition to the Second Alarm response of the FDNY to E. 51 St., an independent response of an "all hands" was used at Park Ave. South and E. 28th St., on the same line. At this point, eventually numerous passengers were removed over a two hour period, in addition to hundreds at the 51 St. site. Another command post was set up at Grand Central Terminal at E. 42 St. and Lexington Ave. for evacuation there and several other locations where street emergency exists were opened to assist the passengers along the line. A total of approximately 3,000 passengers were assisted off the five stranded trains in the tunnels. EMS reported a tentative final patient count of 30 injuries, none of which initially appeared life threatening.
The type of explosion that occurred yesterday on the Lexington Ave. train used to occur somewhat regularly on the older NYC subway cars and emergency personnel were aware of this history. However, the heightened awareness of the potential of terrorism in the public transit system, especially as a result of the World Trade Center bombing and the plans of the other individuals to attempt a similar act in the tunnels, has caused NYC to act accordingly upon receipt of such an alarm. Official concerns also continue about situations such as those that occurred in Japan and Paris systems.
Just last Tuesday, April 23rd, the same type of response investigated a similar situation in Brooklyn when several electrical manholes exploded in the street, causing the loss of some of the electrical power in the subway. This was complicated further by a bogus report that the explosion was caused by a bomb and that there were several more bombs in the manholes.
One fire official told ENN that they will treat "any reported explosion" in the subway as a criminal act until proven otherwise and will respond with the "maximum response" needed to manage such a disaster, should it occur.
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