Fire at Grand Central

Fire at Grand Central

Below is a letter to the editor that I emailed to the New York Times regarding an incident I’ll never forget. It was never published. Thus, I’ve decided to share it on my new blog. For some background, I was taking an excursion to the (now defunct) Astor Pl. K-Mart because they had large vats of Folgers Coffee that nobody else had at the time. It was on a hot Sunday afternoon, around 3PM.

Sitting at the front of the last car, reading an interview with Allan Holdsworth in Guitar Player magazine (unequivocally the greatest guitar player of all time, past, present or future bar none), I was shivering from the air conditioner blasting right on me. Without any further ado, here’s the rest of the story…


13 September 1999

Dear Editor,

While reading your article about the fire at Grand Central Terminal I noted a discrepancy in the facts. The article stated erroneously that the fire occurred at the south end of the northbound platform. This is incorrect as the fire took place at the north end of the southbound platform. I know this because I was a passenger in the last car of a southbound #6 train, pulling into the station at the peak of the fire.

As we pulled into the station, I felt an intense blast of heat from the air conditioner ducts followed by flames sweeping over the train. In a moment, the car was engulfed by the flames as we passed by the fully involved storage room. Stopping only a few feet away from the fire, the doors opened, there was a slight panic as we exited the train and made our way towards the stairs.

There was no light, save for that shed by the flames. The smoke was dense, with a sickening odor of burning wood, mixed with a faint trace of the even more sickening, acrid odor of burning plastic, and breathing became increasingly labored as we searched for the turnstiles.

Looking back on it, I find myself wondering why we ever left the 51st Street station. Why was the existence of this fire not communicated to the engineer before we pulled into Grand Central? By the time we arrived, the station was already completely evacuated, except for those of us on the train. Since the platform was deserted by the time we pulled in, it was obvious that it was known there was a fire, long before my train arrived, probably long before we even left 51st Street.

Once we pulled in, the doors opened and we were left to our own devices. It is fortunate that this incident occurred on a quiet Sunday afternoon, rather than a packed rush hour, whereby the ensuing panic most surely would have led to serious injuries and fatalities. The fact that there were no serious injuries, or worse, was a matter of pure luck.

Clearly, the MTA is totally unprepared for any such potential disaster. The actions as well as inactions on that day were completely irresponsible, and demonstrated clearly that should such an event, or even worse situation, occur at the height of rush hour, we cannot trust the MTA to have any plans to expedite the safe evacuation of passengers trapped on the trains or stations.
I for one am appalled.

David Kahn

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