1 Dead, 151 Hurt in N.Y. Subway Fire : Transportation: Smoke engulfs four trains trapped in tunnel. Officials blame a short circuit caused by melting snow.

Panicked subway passengers screamed, “We’re going to die!” when waves of smoke from an electrical fire filled a subway tunnel Friday, killing one person and injuring 151 others.

The fire, which occurred during the morning rush hour in a subway tunnel linking Manhattan and Brooklyn, apparently was started when melting snow caused an electrical short circuit, fire and transit officials said.

“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 one of four trains trapped in the tunnel.

Passengers heard explosions and then saw smoke, first pouring into the tunnel and then into their trains.

“People were screaming: ‘We’re going to die!’ ” while others prayed out loud, said 28-year-old Dana Sullivan.

Naomi Smalls-Watson, 23, of Brooklyn said she was sitting in the first car of the train when she “heard a popping noise and then a whoosh. Then there was another big boom and people started panicking.”

At that point, the subway tunnel began filling with smoke, so much that passengers could not see anything outside of the train, she said.

“A lot of people passed out,” she said.

Witnesses said that some riders considered trying to open train doors but were stopped by fellow passengers who said it would only make the smoke worse. Eventually, the train was backed up to a station that was farther away from the fire, allowing the passengers to get out.

Transit Authority spokeswoman Caren Gardner said it was unclear exactly how the snow set off the incident. But the fire on the electrified third rail apparently began when snow from the streets above leaked into the subway system and onto wires on the tracks near Clark Street Station, the last station in Brooklyn before the train goes under the river, she said.

Gardner said it was possible that the snow grounded some heavy-duty electrical cables against the third rail.

The accident occurred just after 9 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.

The section of tunnel was reopened 7 1/2 hours later.

The dead man was identified as Peter Hagen, 35, of Smithtown. A Long Island College Hospital spokeswoman said he arrived there in full cardiac arrest but that a medical examiner would have to determine the cause of death.

A 37-year-old woman who was first thought to be dead was revived at the hospital, officials said.

Authorities said 151 people were injured, including some police officers and firefighters. Injuries ranged from smoke inhalation to cuts and bruises.

So many people were taken to hospitals--132 in all--that city buses had to be used, officials said.

It was unclear how many people were aboard the four trains, but Transit Police Capt. Michael Ansbro said 300 to 400 people were on the 10-car train that carried most of the injured.

Mayor David N. Dinkins, who visited the site, called it a “tragic circumstance.”

N.Y. SUBWAY FIRE

Smoke from an explosive electrical short circuit filled crowded rush hour trains in a tunnel under the East River.