A Long Island Rail Road train struck an unoccupied car on the tracks in Mineola Friday evening, sparking a huge fireball that saturated the area with smoke.
No one was in the car when the train hit it at the Mineola station at Main Street and Willis Avenue just before 8 p.m., Nassau police say. It's not clear what the car was doing on the tracks.
The conductor was the only person on the train at the time, and the conductor wasn't hurt, the MTA said.
Part of a nearby building also caught fire, and it was evacuated. Mineola firefighters responded and knocked out the fire. No injuries have been reported.
The MTA says LIRR personnel are assessing track damage and working with police to remove the car from the tracks. The Mineola station will be out of service for hours, and possibly through the weekend. Customers are advised to use Babylon, Hempstead, Montauk and Port Washington branches as an alternative.
