Updated

Oyster Bay, 3 other LIRR lines suspended

FDNY responding to 4-alarm fire at recycling plant near Jamaica station

Posted

Last updated: 3:14 p.m.

Because of a fire east of Jamaica Station, the Long Island Rail Road suspended service in both directions on the Port Jefferson, Ronkonkoma, Oyster Bay and Hempstead lines until further notice as of 2:30 p.m. Friday, LIRR officials reported on Twitter.

The suspension they said was, “due to fire department activity adjacent to the LIRR tracks east of Jamaica Station.” “We’ll restore service as quickly as possible,” an MTA spokesman said, adding that he had no other details beyond which lines had their service interrupted.

At 2:45 p.m., a New York City fire department spokesman told the Herald that it was still "very much an active scene," and called it a 3-alarm fire. Two minutes after that phone call, the FDNY's official Twitter account reported that it had been elevated to a 4-alarm fire, and said that the source was a "large area of outside rubbish" at a recycling plant.

He said that the alarm initially came to the department at 12:54 p.m., and that there are currently no reported injuries, and that 138 fire department and EMS personnel had been dispatched to the scene.

There are several recycling plants in the vicinity. The address listed in FDNY Twitter posts is Royal Waste Services, at 187-40 Jamaica Avenue, Queens Village.

The cause of the fire is unknown at this time.

This story will be updated.

— Zach Gottehrer-Cohen