Multiple Injured After Train Catches Fire in N.Y.C. Subway Station

A raging fire erupted inside a Manhattan subway station early Tuesday, filling the underground platform with choking smoke, sending terrified riders scrambling for the exits and leaving 14 firefighters and MTA workers injured.

The frightening blaze broke out aboard a four-car MTA vacuum train inside the Astor Place station at about 2:15 a.m. on Aug. 4, turning the normally quiet overnight commute into a chaotic emergency scene.

When firefighters arrived, thick smoke was already pouring through the station and spilling onto the streets above.

“Upon arrival, firefighters encountered heavy smoke at both street and station level from the fully involved vacuum train operating below ground,” the FDNY said.

One commuter described the terrifying moment the smoke began swallowing the platform.

“It was smoke coming from down the platform, filling up the whole station, and it got unbearable,” the rider told WCBS. “And we all started to cough. A lot of people ran outside.”

Video from the scene showed smoke billowing from the subway entrance as firefighters rushed underground toward the burning train.

The train involved was not carrying passengers. It was a specialized vacuum train used to suck up trash, metal dust and other debris from the tracks in an effort to prevent fires and signal failures.

But the maintenance train itself suddenly became a fireball beneath Manhattan.

Assistant Chief Thomas Currao said firefighters immediately deployed hose lines, activated the train’s onboard sprinkler system and searched the station for anyone who may have been trapped.

“Units immediately began to deploy handlines to knock down the fire, supply the train’s onboard sprinkler system, and conduct primary and secondary searches,” Currao said.

The emergency took an even more dangerous turn when a northbound passenger train entered the smoke-filled station while the fire was still burning.

Firefighters quickly evacuated the train as other crews fought flames inside the vacuum train’s filter compartment.

Eight MTA workers and six firefighters were injured in the blaze. Officials said most of the injuries were minor and not considered life-threatening.

Passengers and transit employees were seen fleeing the station as emergency crews swarmed the area.

The city’s emergency alert system warned New Yorkers to expect major delays and service changes in Manhattan and Brooklyn as firefighters worked to bring the underground inferno under control.

“As soon as the fire department clears the train, we should be able to move that train, because it’s an electrical unit, and get it out of the way relatively quick,” Currao said. “There will be residual delays, but we are actually in place to start morning service, rush-hour traffic.”

Despite the dramatic overnight chaos, service on the 4, 5 and 6 lines was restored before the morning rush.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin later praised the injured first responders and transit workers.

“Terrible to wake up to the news that eight MTA workers and six firefighters were injured overnight in a fire at the Astor Place station,” Menin wrote on X. “These brave New Yorkers are in my thoughts this morning as they recover.”