MTA fined $7K and counting for failing to fix fire alarm panels at East New York bus depot: documents

The cost of the malfunctioning fire suppression systems at the MTA’s East New York bus depot continues to grow.

The state Department of Labor has fined the transit agency more than $7,000 for failing to fix broken fire alarm panels at the sprawling Brooklyn complex despite repeated warnings to do so, according to documents obtained by the Daily News.

The state watchdog had previously given the agency a June 14 deadline to repair the system at the ailing depot, which houses around 250 buses as well as maintenance shops, MTA offices and subway repair facilities.

The East New York bus depot in Brooklyn. (Clayton Guse/New York Daily News)

“The employer did not ensure that the employee alarm system and the fire panels are in proper working order,” according to a Labor Department investigation report describing a June 23 inspection at the site.

“No servicing or maintenance of the employee alarm system was taking place at the time of this inspection,” the report adds.

A notice of violation, obtained by The News, sets a $108-per-day fine on the MTA that began on June 15.

The notice, issued last Monday, says the MTA owes the state $6,480 — a fine that would have grown to $7,128 by Monday.

(Shutterstock)

The state fine is but a modest addition to the massive overtime costs associated with the ongoing, 24-hour-a-day fire watch at the facility, which began more than 20 months ago due to a sprinkler system malfunction.

A News analysis of MTA overtime documentation from June estimated the fire watch has cost taxpayers well over $2.5 million in the past year alone.

An MTA spokesperson on Monday told The News the fine was based on a misunderstanding, and that the alarm system would work in case of fire.

“The fire panel system at East New York Depot has been continuously operational as designed,” Mike Cortez said in a statement. “Due to a software glitch, an alert light illuminated in error on multiple occasions; engineers investigated and determined the fault was with the software triggering that light — not the panel itself.”

The transit authority has two months to appeal the Labor Department fine, according to the documents reviewed by The News. Cortez said the agency was in discussions to resolve the issue.

The faulty system has plagued the East New York bus depot for years. In a May report on the fire alarm failures, Labor Department investigators listed two earlier violations for the same problem — one in March 2022 and one in May 2020.

“The violation has been an ongoing issue throughout that facility, as numerous complaints, with photographic evidence, continue to be received related to panel indicators displaying ‘trouble’ signs [fault indicator lights],” investigators wrote in May.

The East New York bus depot (Clayton Guse/New York Daily )

In their most recent report this week, Labor Department investigators said four fire panels — one by the depot’s command center, one in the bus dispatcher’s office, one in the first-floor lobby, and one in a storeroom — were all displaying warning lights in late June, more than a week after the repair deadline.

MTA work crews are still struggling to repair leaky water pipes that have rendered the sprinkler system unusable for over a year.

New York City fire code requires a fire watch when either system — sprinklers or alarms — are deemed to be out of order.