Growing up in Brooklyn, Garrett Goble dreamed of being a police officer. But as he got older and started a family, he decided law enforcement was too dangerous. Instead, he found a job as a subway train operator — a much safer option, he thought.

Danger found him anyway.

As Mr. Goble pulled his No. 2 train into a station along the northern edge of Central Park early Friday, he heard the train’s conductor yell that there was heavy smoke and fire in the front of the train, one car away from where Mr. Goble sat.

In a mad dash, he and the conductor rushed to evacuate passengers as fire consumed the car. His colleague then managed to escape the smoke-filled station.

But Mr. Goble did not. When emergency workers arrived, they found him lying unconscious on the tracks, officials said. They believe he was trying to flee from the burning train into the subway tunnel when he was overcome by smoke and collapsed.