lipripr
01-15-2008, 08:18 PM
This is why I always ride in the train, not on top of it
PELHAM - A man who caught on fire while riding atop a Metro-North Railroad train Friday night is still recovering at a hospital, officials said.
Ricardo Chavez, 36, was taken to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx after riding on a New Haven Line train from Grand Central Terminal headed to Stamford, Conn.
"He is in fair condition," hospital spokesman Mike Heller said yesterday. Heller could not give any additional information about the patient.
The train stopped at the Pelham Metro-North station shortly before 8 p.m., when power shut down after the engineer switched the power source from the third rail to the overhead catenary wires, a railroad spokesman said.
The conductor went to the top of the train with a fire extinguisher to see what happened, Metro-North spokesman Dan Brucker said. The conductor found Chavez with his clothes in flames and sprayed him with the extinguisher.
Pelham police Detective Rick Deere said village police were called to help secure the area and dispatch an ambulance.
It took emergency workers about 45 minutes to lower Chavez off the roof, after they safely grounded poles to drain electricity from the overhead wires, Deere said.
Passengers were transferred to another train, and rail traffic continued through the area at a slow speed as the emergency crews worked.
Brucker said Chavez, whose shirt had burned off, had been exposed to 11,000 to 14,000 volts.
Officials still do not know why Chavez was on top of the train, but the incident remains under investigation.
PELHAM - A man who caught on fire while riding atop a Metro-North Railroad train Friday night is still recovering at a hospital, officials said.
Ricardo Chavez, 36, was taken to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx after riding on a New Haven Line train from Grand Central Terminal headed to Stamford, Conn.
"He is in fair condition," hospital spokesman Mike Heller said yesterday. Heller could not give any additional information about the patient.
The train stopped at the Pelham Metro-North station shortly before 8 p.m., when power shut down after the engineer switched the power source from the third rail to the overhead catenary wires, a railroad spokesman said.
The conductor went to the top of the train with a fire extinguisher to see what happened, Metro-North spokesman Dan Brucker said. The conductor found Chavez with his clothes in flames and sprayed him with the extinguisher.
Pelham police Detective Rick Deere said village police were called to help secure the area and dispatch an ambulance.
It took emergency workers about 45 minutes to lower Chavez off the roof, after they safely grounded poles to drain electricity from the overhead wires, Deere said.
Passengers were transferred to another train, and rail traffic continued through the area at a slow speed as the emergency crews worked.
Brucker said Chavez, whose shirt had burned off, had been exposed to 11,000 to 14,000 volts.
Officials still do not know why Chavez was on top of the train, but the incident remains under investigation.