Flames and smoke seen on train tracks in Bushwick

Officials say flames and smoke came shooting off of the raised train tracks on Broadway in Bushwick Thursday.

News 12 Staff

Jun 3, 2022, 10:25 AM

Updated 865 days ago

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Officials say flames and smoke came shooting off of the raised train tracks on Broadway in Bushwick Thursday.
People on social media described it as like something out of a movie. While some ran out of the way, others pulled out smart phones and started recording the first of several of what appeared to be some kind of explosions near the intersection of Myrtle and Broadway avenues. The incident occurred at around 8 p.m.
Video shows a spray of light and smoke, and drivers hitting their brakes trying to avoid getting hit by any of it.
The FDNY responded to a fire on the train tracks of the JMZ line at Myrtle Avenue in Bushwick. They say it appears there was an electrical fire with some of the wiring below the tracks. The power was temporarily turned off as crews got the fire under control.
New York City Transit President Richard Davey released a statement saying:
“So as a contributing factor, but we need to do a little more due diligence in this regard, but it's clear it’s a cable fail. We think age was a contributing, if not major cause of it. And more to come. It's a power cable. We think it's 60 plus years old. I’m just going to be candid with you, we don't have records going back to that. Which, we know the exact age, but the visual inspections from our maintenance away crews strongly suggest it’s vintage 1960s. And I mean, look, I'm not even vintage 1960s. So, you know, this is this is a challenge that we need to be looking at across the system. I'm sure there are other places - I don't know, I'm sure there are other places that have these kind of aged equipment but that's what we know. I think the fact that something lasted this long is probably a bit of a miracle. We need to look at where there are other potential weaknesses in our system.”
No injuries were reported as a result of the fire.