New York City had been under a COVID-19 shutdown for barely a week. The streets were quiet, the subways nearly empty, and the few riders still underground at 3:15 a.m. on March 27, 2020, were the essential workers and night-shift employees who kept the city breathing. A northbound 2 train was running its late-night local route from Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn toward Wakefield-241st Street in the Bronx when fire erupted in the second car as the train passed between 96th Street and 110th Street. By the time it pulled into the Central Park North-110th Street station, the train was engulfed in flames. The operator, Garrett Goble, was killed. At least sixteen others were injured. It was an act of arson at the worst possible moment - a city already on its knees hit with violence in its most essential infrastructure.
The train consisted of ten R142 subway cars in two five-car sets. The fire broke out in car 6347, the second car in the formation, while the train moved northward through the tunnel. Firefighters received the call at approximately 3:18 a.m. and 100 of them responded to control the blaze. A northbound 3 train traveling behind the burning 2 train was also evacuated in the tunnel. Visibility at the 110th Street station dropped to near zero as dense smoke filled the underground space and began seeping upward through station entrances to the street. The conductor and an MTA employee managed to evacuate passengers from the burning train and off the platform - an act of composure under conditions that defied composure. After the fire was extinguished, the full scale of the damage became clear: car 6347 was gutted, and fire and smoke had spread through the station and the remaining train cars.
The 110th Street fire was not isolated. Around the same time, additional fires were reported at the 86th Street, 96th Street, and 116th Street stations along the IRT line. The pattern immediately pointed investigators toward arson. Police identified an "apparently emotionally disturbed person" as a potential suspect early in the investigation. The MTA posted a $50,000 reward for information leading to the person responsible, and two days after the fire, the NYPD released a photograph of a person of interest. Within 48 hours of the photo's release, police arrested Nathaniel Avinger, who was suspected of setting the 110th Street fire as well as the others. In December 2020, nine months after the attack, Avinger was charged with the murder of Garrett Goble after being arrested for an unrelated crime. He was eventually deemed unfit to stand trial and placed in a psychiatric facility.
Garrett Goble was the operator of the 2 train that morning. His job was to drive the train; his last act was to bring it into the station so passengers could escape. The MTA described the conductor and another employee as having successfully evacuated riders from the train and platform. In the underground dark, with smoke obliterating visibility and fire consuming the car behind the operator's cab, Goble kept the train moving toward the station rather than stopping in the tunnel - a decision that gave passengers a chance at reaching open air. He did not survive. On May 24, 2021, the MTA unveiled a memorial for Goble at the Flatbush Avenue-Brooklyn College station, the southern terminus of the route he had been running that night. Five years later, in March 2025, the MTA issued a statement on the anniversary marking his sacrifice.
Service along the IRT Lenox Avenue Line was suspended immediately. The 2 train was rerouted along the Lexington Avenue Line between 149th Street-Grand Concourse and Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center, while 3 trains ran via the Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line to 137th Street-City College. Shuttle buses filled the gaps along the closed stations. The 86th Street and 96th Street stations were temporarily shut down for the FDNY's investigation. Lenox Avenue Line service resumed on March 30, three days later, though the 110th Street station itself remained closed for repairs until April 6. Cars 6346 through 6350 were written off as damaged beyond repair. Cars 6366 through 6370 from the second set were eventually restored and returned to service. In a city already reeling from the pandemic's onset - hospitals filling, businesses closing, fear settling into every crowded apartment and empty street - the subway fire was a reminder of the fragility that lies beneath the surface of daily life in New York.
Located at 40.7987N, 73.9523W at the 110th Street-Malcolm X Plaza subway station in Harlem, Manhattan, at the northeast corner of Central Park. From the air, the station sits where Central Park's green rectangle meets the Harlem street grid. The Harlem Meer is the park's water feature nearest to this location. Nearby airports include LaGuardia (KLGA, 6 nm east) and Teterboro (KTEB, 10 nm northwest). Recommended viewing altitude: 2,000-3,000 feet AGL.