Piecing it together

I first smelled the burning rubber -- or maybe it was spilt gasoline -- on the 2 train between 42nd and 34th Streets. The entire block of 34th Street from Eighth to Ninth Avenues was evacuated as I walked past on the way to my office on Tenth; people were too calm for it to be anything life threatening, but the smell persisted. A co-worker's F train was diverted to the A line. My 10am appointment was flustered because his building on 32nd and Broadway was full of firefighters and the rubber/gasoline smell. A woman fainted and was carried out on a stretcher.

OK, what's going on?