Fire in Wall Street Building Delays Opening of Trade

A fire in a Wall Street office building delayed the opening of the New York and American stock exchanges for one hour this morning.

The Securities Industry Automation Corp., whose computers serve the exchange, has computer facilities at 55 Water Street, the location of the smoky fire in a basement parking garage.

Emergency vehicles snarled already thick rush-hour traffic in the narrow streets of lower Manhattan, which caused delay in extinguishing the blaze.

Both exchanges opened at 10:30 a.m. instead of the usual 9:30 a.m.

A spokeswoman for the AMEX said the exchange conducted “internal trading” for 4 1/2 minutes during the blaze but could not continue because of problems with the computer system.

The U.S. over-the-counter markets began trading at the usual time of 9:30 a.m., but activity was very light.