Fire at Southport Train Station

[MikeSFD]

Overnight a major fire broke out at the Southport Train Station in Fairfield CT on the New Haven Line. From my sources the station seems to be heavily damaged with major structural issues.

[Erie-Lackawanna]

Due to ice accumulation throughout the westbound station area, there will be no westbound service at Southport this morning, until such time as things can be cleaned up and made safe. Eastbound service on track 4 will stop as usual.

Jim

[MikeSFD]

Further reports indicate significant damage to the building and the parking lots are all closed for that station.

[Clean Cab]

It sucks that another classic New Haven Railroad station has been destroyed. Thankfully no one was injured, but it did create a lot of delays for the late night trains though.

[BERK44]

What a shame. I just saw it on the news. The building is still standing but gutted. The Fire Dept reported fire showing out of every window upon their arrival.

[Clean Cab]

Arson you think? For a buliding to be so totally engulfed like that it would tend to inidcate a deliberately set fire.

[BERK44]

It could be anything. The Fire Investigator will thoroughly search for the cause of the fire. As for the volume of fire. Building construction, contents, discovery and reporting of the fire, and response time all factor in the growth and spread of the fire.

[Jeff Smith]

Guess that takes it off my stations thread. A terrible shame, but the old classic stations I think by design are prone to this.

Although who knows what the cause is, this isn't the first station to burn. Woodlawn, Mt. Vernon East just to my recollection.

[Murjax]

What a shame, I'm sure this caused a few traffic probelms this morning and I'm sure Fairfield and Greens Farms were packed. At this point, there is no word on how long the westbound track will be closed but hopefully it's back up by tomorrow morning.

[Murjax]

Has the station been reopened yet? I haven't heard anything from Metro North and their previous service alert on the website is gone.

[kitn1mcc]

yeah it was a nice ol building

[Erie-Lackawanna]

Two carlengths of the westbound platform are back in service. However, there are no TVMs available (station fare being charged on board) and no public address system (hope we don't have to left-hand any trains the next few days....).

There were delays to two MNR trains last night. Not the stuff of an e-mail alert.

Jim

[SwingMan]

Its a darn shame that such a nice, original building, could burn so helplessly in the cold morning darkness .


lirr415-Peter

[Clean Cab]

Unfortunately, old buildings made entirely out of wood can become bonfires real quick. I've heard that the station will be rebuilt.

[Travelsonic]

Unfortunately, old buildings made entirely out of wood can become bonfires real quick..

Case-in-point (though offtopic in relation to the station): The old lodge at the former Action Park water park in Vernon, NJ, burned down 2 years after the park closed (which was in '96), but unlike this train station, it was far newer, but was kept in such a condition where it could have gone up in flames earlier, and thankfully didn't since that place was allegedly quite packed (with people), which would have resulted in more than structural devestation.