CNN breaking news: explosion starts fire at the Grand Central station. What's going on?

It was an underground transformer.

It is near Grand central, not in it. The subways going through seem to be suspended,but the Metro North commuter trains are running. There is very limited access into the building, only from an entrance at 47th st

A steampipe explosion at 41st and Lex. No fire inside Grand Central.

Whew! Media and its exagerrations!

well--I'd call it misinformation rather than exageration.
It is a 5 alarm "fire" (mostly steam, smoke, water, debris) in one of the busiest neighborhoods of the city, at pretty much the height of evening rush hour.
Fortunately, injuries seem to be relatively few and minor.
But, if anyone is thinking of going to that neighborhood--or within a few blocks either way, DON'T.
It is still an emergency scene, not completely safe, and fire and ambulances need to get in and out of the area

All of the details are still not clear, but they're saying it's a superheated steam pipe rupture (near an area where there appeared to be Con Edison workers). The problem is that whole area of the city - besides the several levels of Grand Central, is all connected to the Lexington avenue subway tunnels, the 42 street subway shuttle, and a bunch of pedestrian passages into various nearby office buildings.

What many people don;t realize is that much of the heat/power for NYC buildings actually comes from steam power and that there are huge steampipes running under much of the city. (This is why the snow melts so quickly in midtown - many of the sidewalks are heated from underneath).

And while the steam is perfectly safe once dissipated, there are questions - esp in some of the older buildings - of possible asbestos being spread by the steam.

It will be a while before they really know anything beyond at least a dozen injured and one dead.

I work at 355 Lex. Between 40 & 41st. This happened smack in front of my office. I was just leaving at about 6 pm. Standing at the elevator bank when the whole building shook and a roar of noise just engulfed the building. I was never so scared in my life. I couldn't tell if it was coming from the elevator or the stairwell, but it was horrible. I ran back into the office and looked out the window from my office on the 17th floor. That was a mistake. Billowing smoke and debris everywhere. There was no way of knowing what was going on. We just ran for our lives down the other stairwell. When we got to the lobby they ushered us out the back freight exit on 40th, between 3rd & Lex., and I ran for 3rd. Some very nice people at Wild Salmon restaurant offered me some water until I stopped shaking. I sat for 1/2 hour until they shooed me out of there. The roaring noise still had not stopped, but at least we knew it was not a terrorist attack. Needless to say, my office is off limits, the block is a frozen zone, and I will be working from home (7 blocks away) tomorrow, and hoping I have not been affected by asbestos. Amazing.

Wow, Bugswife, how terrifying! I'm glad to hear you're okay. Thanks for telling us about your experience. I couldn't believe the picture I saw on the news of a truck sitting in a huge crater in the street. I'm sorry to hear there was a fatality and serious injuries. I hope they can get things fixed up and functioning again in that part of the city without too much delay.

bugswife1, I can't even imagine how terrifying that must have been. I'm glad you're okay!

FainaAgain:

When I turned the t.v. on and saw the NYC scene I was afraid for all NYC home to my son and his wife.

bugswife1 so glad you are o.k. - take care and hope things are soon back to normal.

nytraveler - did not know that huge steam pipes run beneath the city. Thanks for the information.

Sandy

Rest assured, FainaAgain, it was NOT exaggeration by the media!
While, fortunately, was not close to the explosion site, I was in the city and can tell you that it was indeed a terrifying experience.

Yesterday was very scarey. I was downtown for a meeting not far from the explosion and the emergency vehicles and sirens was a reminder indeed of 9/11.

Very quickly after the event happened the Mayor was on TV and Radio to let everyone know that it was infrastructure breakdown and not as was initially feared terrorism. I must applaude the Mayor for his extremely quick response to the emergency.

If you want to read more about the event, ABC Channel 7 has a website with more info and it's www.7online.com.

So glad you are ok bugswife, take care of yourself today. The city was lucky that there were not alot more injured and, it could have been so much worse. It seems the one fatality was a heart attack a woman suffered who worked a couple of blocks away at Pfizer.

Yes - that's how much of the city is powered - there's a giant steam plant on the river and the pipes run underneath the city. They provide heat and even AC in the summer (I don;t understand that part) to most of the highrises in that part of the city.

Also - that area - and others in the city - like Rockefeller Center - have a lot of undergound passageways - with stores, restaurants etc - connecting to the varous subways - and for pedestrians to get around when the city it too cold/snowy or bad rain to too much heat. (I think most tourists never see these - but they're very handy for locals - esp when the streets are crowded.)