MTA Honors Heroic Acts by Four Security Officers Who Extinguished Fire in Subway Car

 Security Officers Put Out the Fire on a Northbound 1 Train in Washington Heights February 2 

View Photos of the Fire Scene From February 2

View Photos of Today’s News Conference 

View Video of Today’s News Conference

Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officials today honored four MTA New York City Transit-contracted security officers for their heroic collaboration putting out a fire on a subway car on a northbound   train at 181^st St on Wednesday, February 2. The honorees are Field Supervisor Sultan Mohamed and Security Officers Marcel Langhorn, Evelyn Riddick, and Richard Garcia.  

The employees instinctively jumped into action after being notified by passengers of a fire onboard. Supervisor Mohamed ensured customers remained safe while Garcia reached for the phone and dialed 911. Langhorn and Riddick rushed to the scene and worked together to mitigate the fire with water from water bottles. According to Langhorn and Riddick, once the fire subsided, they proceeded to stomp the fire out.

MTA officials joined these employees at the South Ferry Station in Manhattan to present each of them with a commendation in recognition of their heroic service. 

“The actions of these security officers are beyond commendable and are truly an act of bravery and heroism,” said New York City Transit Interim President Craig Cipriano. “We are grateful for their quick thinking and appreciate how helpful they were in preventing a potentially much more dangerous situation for riders.” 

“These employees not only demonstrated an outstanding dedication to their job, but also showed their courage and selflessness,” said New York City Transit Senior Vice President of Subways Demetrius Crichlow “Their teamwork kept both passengers and our frontline employees safe.”  

“Just the other day me and my partners helped New York City Transit by putting out a small train fire, as the man said, it could have been bigger, but we did the best we can,” said Security Officer Evelyn Riddick. “As we should, we think about others instead of ourselves.”

“In the act of the fire, we put it out and made sure that everybody was safe,” said Security Officer Marcel Langhorn. “So, I’m glad that everybody was safe as we were just patrolling, making sure that the whole station was clear. Give thanks that everybody is safe. As we did our job, we’re just looking out for everybody, just everybody.”

The incident occurred at 10:00 a.m. train service was suspended between Van Cortlandt Park-242 St and 168 St-Washington Heights in both directions for approximately two hours while the NYPD concluded an on-scene investigation.

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