NJ Transit escalators at Secaucus Junction lack fire protection state requires

Curtis Tate | NorthJersey

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Not one of the 31 escalators at NJ Transit's Secaucus Junction station is enclosed with fire-resistant materials even though there is a state mandate that requires it, according to inspection reports.

The absence of fire protection on the escalators could present a major safety hazard, experts say.

A fire in November 2014 closed four of the station's escalators for about a year. Other malfunctions have taken the station's escalators out of service and sent people to the hospital.

Since then, state inspectors have flunked NJ Transit on fire protection in every escalator inspection report. Yet they continued to allow the agency to operate the escalators and declined to pursue fines that could have totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

The Record and NorthJersey.com obtained escalator inspection reports for the Secaucus station from the state Department of Community Affairs through an Open Public Records Act request.

The reports, which go back to 2015, show that NJ Transit could have been fined $500 per violation per week. Added up, the penalties would total more than $800,000 a year.

The state has not assessed those penalties against NJ Transit.

Tammori Petty, a spokeswoman for the Department of Community Affairs, said the department hadn't pursued the fines against NJ Transit because the agency was working on "a reasonable solution."

The Department of Community Affairs inspects the escalators about twice a year.

Meanwhile, the escalators have continued to operate without fire protection, and the inspection violations have continued to pile up.

Robert Solomon, director of building and life safety systems at the National Fire Protection Association in Quincy, Massachusetts, said fire protection on escalators is critical. Since an escalator connects floors, he said it's important to prevent smoke and fire from spreading from one floor to another.

A large concentration of sprinklers can help achieve this, he said. Enclosing the truss and mechanical areas with fire-resistant materials is another.

"Anything you can do to shield any combustible materials," Solomon said. "We’re trying to take away the fuel source."

One of the deadliest fires involving escalators took place in a train station.

On Nov. 18, 1987, a fire started at the bottom of a wooden escalator in Kings Cross station on the London Underground. The fire quickly consumed litter and grease and ignited the entire escalator in a huge fireball. Thirty-one people were killed and more than 100 were injured, many with severe burns.

Modern escalators are made of aluminum, not wood. But debris and lubricating materials can accumulate in escalator housings, creating a fire risk.

New Jersey incorporates the standards set by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers into its uniform construction code. The society requires that escalator trusses and mechanical areas be enclosed with fire-resistant materials.

The escalators at Secaucus Junction have experienced other glitches.

On May 29, an escalator stopped abruptly and reversed direction, causing injuries to three people, including one who was sent to the hospital.

In November 2010, an escalator stopped abruptly, injuring five football fans who had just attended a game at what's now called MetLife Stadium.

Nancy Snyder, a spokeswoman for NJ Transit, said the escalators met the requirements of the NJ Meadowlands Commission, the governing body that approved the station's certificate of occupancy. The station opened in 2003.

Snyder said NJ Transit is "in regular and diligent conversations" with the Department of Community Affairs to resolve the issue.

Lisa Ryan, a spokeswoman for the Department of Community Affairs, said NJ Transit "has been working to design a solution that will be compliant."

Neither Snyder nor Ryan described how the escalators would be brought into compliance, how long it would take, or how much it would cost.

Escalator fires are relatively rare events, Solomon said. Still, he said, "if something catastrophic does happen, someone is clearly on the hook."

"Somebody’s going to have some explaining to do," he said.

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