Crews Battle Blaze on NYC's Liberty Island

Aug. 27 -- Three propane tanks caught fire near the base of the Statue of Liberty Monday, prompting the evacuation of 3,400 tourists and nearly sparking a “catastrophic” explosion, officials said.

“You’re dealing with 300 pounds of propane, a very dangerous situation,” said FDNY Manhattan Borough Commander Roger Sakowich. “Tremendous ball of fire when a propane tank does explode.”

The blaze began when a 100-pound propane tank caught fire about 11:45 a.m. in a construction site for a new security screening facility about 200 feet from the base of the iconic statue, officials said.

“We heard a pop,” said Tarkan Fahri, 34, a tourist from Sydney visiting Liberty Island.

“It sounded like gas under pressure. Like ‘shhhhh’. A few of the people around us started running away. Then one of the workers ushered everyone away . . . A construction worker was using a torch and then he dropped it and then he ran. We saw it and then we ran.”

“From a distance you could still see the flames,” Fahri added. “They were pretty high.”

It took 50 firefighters two hours to douse the blaze as 3,400 tourists were evacuated from Liberty Island. Fifty more smoke-eaters were on standby.

The tanks never exploded.

“With that much propane, a BLEVE (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion) — which would’ve been one of the tanks exploding — could’ve been catastrophic,” Commander Sakowich said. “Anyone near it would’ve been flying for quite some distance.”After the tank burst into flames, another tank fell over and its relief valve began leaking gas. “The fire was coming out of the valve where the valve was missing,” Sakowich said of the second tank.

A third tank nearby was also threatened by the flames. The tanks are five feet tall and about 18 inches around, authorities said.

At the time of the blast, a ferry was pulling up to the island and about half the people got off before authorities told them to get back on the boat, which returned to Manhattan.

“Initially were told that the tanks were inside the Statue of Liberty,” Sakowich said. “Turned out they were not inside the statue, they were outside in a construction site. A little safer — but still.”

A maintenance worker suffered minor burns from the first tank’s flames, authorities said. He refused medical attention.

“We believe he was doing something with the tanks at the time,” Sakowich said.

Liberty Island was closed for the remainder of the day.

“The guy said there is an emergency at the statue so there are no more trips today,” said a 29-year-old tourist from Switzerland turned away when she tried to get in line to board a ferry in Battery Park. “I’m disappointed but we’ll come back tomorrow.”

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