Train operator killed in a subway fire in Manhattan

NEW YORK — A subway train operator was killed early Friday after a fire that investigators believe may have been intentionally set erupted inside a train car at a station along the northern edge of Central Park, officials said.

The fire was reported as a No. 2 train pulled into the station and the train conductor alerted the operator that there was heavy smoke and fire in the second car of the train, said Brian McGee, a deputy chief of detectives.

When the train stopped at the station around 3:18 a.m., passengers were evacuated by the conductor, operator and another transit worker who was riding the train on his way to work.

But when emergency workers arrived on the scene the operator, Garrett Goble, was found lying on the tracks, officials said.

Officials suspect Goble, 36, was trying to flee from the burning train into the subway tunnel, when he was overcome by smoke and collapsed. He was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital early Friday.

Police were investigating the fire and believe it may be connected to two other fires in the transit system in Manhattan, one at the 86th Street Station and another at the 96th Street Station, that were also reported around 3:15 a.m. Friday.

A third fire on the street level was reported later in the morning at the 116th Street Station.

“We are devastated by this; this is a hard moment for New York City Transit,” Sarah Feinberg, interim president of New York City Transit, said at a news conference Friday morning.

As the fire raged, a second subway car stopped just short of the station, after which emergency workers evacuated its passengers out of the subway tunnel through an emergency exit, Feinberg said.

A photo circulating among emergency workers of the train car shows a shell of a car with blackened walls, melted seats...