Cleaning crews use toxic chems,

Eight-foot flames shot out from a gaspowered generator powering high-pressure cleaning hoses at a Brooklyn subway station last week — an example of safety risks and cut corners on the MTA’s “deep cleaning” of subway stations that is part of the Subway Action Plan.

Workers scrambled to shut off the generator, one of six set up on the eastbound platform at the Clinton-Washington station on the C line in Clinton Hill in the accident witnessed Tuesday by the Daily News.

Crews were calm as they put out the fire — the generators had caught fire before during station cleaning, workers said.

The accident is an example of dicey shortcuts that have come with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s “deep cleaning” program paid for by the $836 million Subway Action Plan.

The contractor, WRS Environmental Services, is one of 21 outside firms comThe by the MTA to aggressively clean 106 stations this year. agency has dedicated $200 million of its Subway Action Plan money to station and train car cleanings. The spending includes $16 million to hire outside firms to aggressively scrub stations.

The decision to bring in outside cleaning firms nearly sparked a union picket earlier this year. Transport Workers Union Local 100 and MTA bosses came to a compromise: The agency could bring in outside crews to intensely clean the batch of stations, and two union workers would be on site for the cleanings to learn new techniques.

MTA spokesman Max Young said the work aimed to get stations to a point of cleanliness that in-house crews could maintain moving forward. “Besides cleaning the stations through the Subway Action Plan, the MTA has begun to incorporate some of the independent contractors’ means and methods so we can reinforce this work every few days and keep these stations clean,” he said.

But The News found that some of those means and methods skirt basic safety standards. Sixteen workers cleaned the Clinton-Washington station last week — compared with three or four workers usually assigned to the MTA’s unionized mobile wash force.

The contractors scrubbed areas such as light fixtures and vents, which inhouse crews normally do not hit.

The workers were using heavy-duty “citrol” chemicals to complete the cleaning. The fumes from the solvent mixed with the exhaust from the gas generators and the vapor from hot, pressurized water. The combination made the underground air difficult to breathe.

Workers were wearing minimal protective gear. Some didn’t have face masks.

Gov. Cuomo has repeatedly chided the MTA’s in-house cleaners over the last six months, alleging they only use Tide detergent to clean the subway stations.

He is correct when he says that that Local 100 workers use detergent — Procter & Gamble sells a heavy-duty version of Tide to clean floors and industrial sites. But the workers also use bleach solumissioned