Statue of Liberty evacuated after construction fire breaks out
The Statue of Liberty was evacuated Monday after a propane tank caught fire at a construction site on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, officials said. National Park Service spokesman Jerry Willis said the propane tank was located next to two or three other tanks but did not explode.
One construction worker was injured, but the worker was treated and released at the scene, Willis said. There was no damage to the statue, and Liberty Island was not evacuated.
The construction site was closed off to the public and the only people in the area would be construction workers, CBS New York reports.
It took firefighters two hours to contain the blaze, the New York City Fire Department said, adding that more than 3,000 people were evacuated to keep the visitors safe.
"You had no choice, with that much propane, a bleve – which is one of the tanks exploding would've been a catastrophic," said Chief Roger Sakowich, according to CBS New York. "Anybody near it, scrap metal would've been flying from quite some distance, and tremendous balls of fire when a propane tank does explode like that."
