An Amtrak transformer fire broke out near a Con Ed substation on the railroad's Hell Gate Line Tuesday afternoon, suspending Amtrak travel in both directions along the Northeast Corridor between Penn Station and New Haven.
The fire, reported at a substation at Bronxdale and East Tremont Aves. in the Bronx, ignited around 2:30 p.m., causing a power loss for trains in the area, according to the FDNY.
The fire jumped from an overhead Amtrak transformer along the tracks to nearby brush, then to the parking lot of the adjacent substation, burning at least three cars.
Nearly 200 fire and EMS responders were deployed to the fire as of Tuesday evening, and the operations remained ongoing.
An Amtrak spokesman said Tuesday evening that the cause of the transformer fire was still under investigation.
Tuesday's blaze is at least the third brushfire in the past week in New York City amid an ongoing drought in the city. There were two brushfires in as many days in Prospect Park this past weekend. On Saturday, a fire scorched a 2-acre wooded area as more than 100 firefighters, including special brushfire units, fought the fire for nearly three hours.
Electrification of the Hell Gate Line was completed in the 1920s, though some portions of the traction power system between New Rochelle and the East River tunnel were modernized in the 1980s.
The Hell Gate Line's power system is scheduled to be upgraded as part of the MTA's Penn Station Access project, which would send Metro-North trains to Penn Station via the line — but that work has not yet begun.
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