by JENNIFER SMITH AND ANDREW STRICKLER
About 4,000 passengers had to be evacuated from two subway trains after a track fire broke out during rush hour in Brooklyn, near the Manhattan Bridge, New York City fire officials said. The three-alarm fire, which officials said appeared to have started near a homeless encampment in a subway tunnel, disrupted service on four subway lines, affecting thousands of commuters and temporarily snarling vehicle traffic near the bridge. More than 25 people were treated on the scene and at local hospitals for smoke inhalation and other minor injuries, including three firefighters suffering from heat exhaustion, said Charles Wells, chief of the city's Emergency Medical Service's operations division, at a news conference last night in Brooklyn. Smoke was reported after 6 p.m. at the DeKalb Avenue stop on the B line, which runs between Brooklyn and the Bronx and passes through Manhattan. The fire, which investigators said appeared to be accidental, is thought to have started just beyond the platform on a track tie - a piece of wood that supports the rails - in a tunnel about 900 feet from the Manhattan Bridge. A motorman on a Brooklyn-bound B train coming off the bridge saw the fire at about 6:19 p.m. and stopped the train after the first three cars had entered the tunnel, FDNY Asst. Cmdr. James Esposito said. Passengers streaming down Flatbush Avenue two hours after the fire was first reported said that a second packed rush-hour train, this one on the Brooklyn-bound D line, also came to a halt shortly before exiting the Manhattan Bridge. As the power flickered on and off, the cars got hotter and riders strained to hear instructions on the train's loudspeaker system. Passengers on the second train waited for about an hour before getting the go-ahead to evacuate; Esposito said the first concern was moving those in the first train's cars away from the source of the smoke. "It was rush hour, so there was a lot of human body heat," said Jason Cecil, 26, who was riding the D train home to Brooklyn from his Harlem job as a technical coordinator. Putting out the fire and evacuating the packed trains took nearly two hours, Esposito said. "It was a very difficult and slow operation." An investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing. Scores of evacuated passengers - some exasperated, others relieved - continued to stream down Flatbush Avenue after 8 p.m. in search of alternate trains or buses home. Service was disrupted on the B, D, Q, and V lines but restored by 11 p.m. last night. "If there's one lesson to be learned form this, it's that the MTA needs a new PA system," said Christina Liviakis, 28, of Marine Park.
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