N.Y. Subway Fire Kills 1, Hurts 140 : Transit: Commuters screamed and prayed as choking smoke filled the tunnel under Brooklyn. In Boston, 31 were injured in a trolley crash.

An electrical fire spread choking smoke through a subway tunnel today, killing a commuter and injuring more than 140, officials said. Terrified passengers screamed and prayed out loud.

In Boston, a trolley car was struck by another trolley, injuring 31 people.

New York Transit Authority spokeswoman Caren Gardner said the death occurred after a snowfall-related fire broke out on the electrified third rail in the subway tunnel underneath downtown Brooklyn.

“We really thought we were gone, that we wouldn’t see New Year’s,” said Gertrude Hoyte, a 51-year-old Brooklyn resident who was on her way to work in Manhattan.

She described how smoke filled the subway cars, causing people to panic and several to vomit into their newspapers.

“People were screaming, ‘We’re going to die!’ ” said passenger Dana Sullivan, 28. Others were praying out loud, she said.

In the Boston accident, one trolley car was struck by another as it unloaded commuters in a station on the edge of Boston Common. At least one of the injured was in critical condition.

“I just screamed out, ‘Everybody hang on and get down! We’re going to hit!’ ” said Steve DePaulo, a passenger on the moving trolley. “It just seemed like seconds later we smashed into the trolley in front of us. People just went flying everywhere.” He said he believed that his train was moving rather fast as it entered the station.

Ernest Jones, a passenger on the stationary trolley, said one minute he was reading his newspaper, the next they were hit and he saw at least four people bleeding from head injuries.

The New York subway accident occurred about 9:10 a.m. in the tunnel used by the No. 2 and No. 3 subway lines, going through downtown Brooklyn and then under the East River toward Manhattan.

Authorities said 145 people were injured, all apparently from smoke inhalation. So many were taken to hospitals--132 in all--that city buses had to be used.

The identity of the dead man, described as a subway rider, was not released.

Medical staff at Long Island College Hospital managed to revive a woman whom authorities at the scene had believed to be dead, but her condition remained grave, hospital officials said.