February 10, 2004
F Train Fire
"Potentially lethal mistakes hampered the evacuation of subway riders during a fire last summer at Brooklyn's York Street station and exposed numerous vulnerabilities in the armor of the century-old transit system, according to a draft report on the official investigation."
Here's the initial post on this fire. Basically, the evacuation didn't go well at all.
"The transit control center in Downtown Brooklyn failed to assess the severity of the fire and smoke from workers on the scene. Fans intended to remove smoke from the station were improperly used, enveloping stranded riders and workers in heavy smoke. Flashlights and Streamlight LiteBoxes carried by workers proved useless in dark and smoky tunnels. A transit boss was unable to use the fire safety system computer, an important tool with information about the station, third rails and fan plants."
Here's the thing, though. "'You have to understand an incident like this occurs over a matter of seconds,' he [Charles Seaton, a transit spokesman] said. 'You have one person, and they're doing an awful lot, and some mistakes were made.'"
You don't just have one person. Maybe you have one person who works for the MTA, but you have tens or hundreds on the train itself. Not that anyone has asked me how to run this city, but you have to educate people before these kinds of things happen. As a subway rider, I should be aware of the proper procedures before I get on the train. I shouldn't have to wait until it's burning to find out. All it takes is a few posters (or some such crap) and riders will have a better idea of what they need to do.
It also helps if MTA folks back in the command center (or whatever they call it) know what they're doing. After reading the article, it doesn't look they do.
categories:
General
posted by at February 10, 2004 7:30 PM
