Subway Fire Near Dekalb Station in Brooklyn Causing Delays

By ANDY NEWMAN

A fire in the subway tunnel north of the Dekalb Avenue station in Brooklyn is wreaking late-afternoon havoc on lettered train lines, causing an ever-changing series of delays and reroutings, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said.

Transit officials are urging riders to use the numbered lines instead if they can.

Some cables caught fire in the tunnel shortly after 4 p.m. the Fire Department said. They were still burning as of 4:55, and service was not expected to be back to normal any time soon, a fire official said.

“After the fire is out then you have to air out the location,” he said. “It will be a little while.”

As of 4:51 p.m., the M.T.A.'s Web site was reporting that the N and Q were running along the local R track from Canal Street to Dekalb. There was no B service south of 34th Street in Manhattan, and no D service between 34th Street and Atlantic Avenue.