Ex-con quizzed in subway blaze charged with dorm fire

A homeless ex-con questioned about the smoky fire that led to the death of a train operator has been charged in an earlier arson at Columbia University, police said Tuesday.

Nathaniel Avinger, 49, is accused of starting a fire early March 11 outside Prentis Hall, a women’s dorm on W. 125th St., cops said. He’s expected to be released on a desk appearance ticket, an NYPD spokesman said.

Avinger is still a person of interest in Friday’s arson fire in a No. 2 train (photo) at the 110th St./Central Park North station, cops said. Hero MTA train operator Garrett Goble, 36, rushed commuters out of the train as the flames spread from a shopping cart throughout one of the subway cars.

He got lost in the smoke-filled tunnel and collapsed, possibly from a coronary arrest, sources said.

Detectives are still looking for witnesses tying Avinger to the blaze, police sources said.

A woman who identified herself as Avinger’s relative said he jumps from shelter to shelter, and has a brother in Houston.

“I haven’t spoken to him in a while. He’s mentally challenged. The last his brother saw him was a little over a year ago,” she said. “It was winter and he was living in the subways. He didn’t have any shoes on, no coat, nothing. Somebody had stolen everything from him.”

Avinger, who lives at the Jerome Ave. Men’s Shelter in the Bronx, served prison time for a 2013 robbery conviction, public records show.

On Tuesday night, cops released a photo of a woman they believe was present for the blaze and might have information in the case.