Metro

Sewage in the Hudson

The Hudson River is off-limits to swimmers and kayakers through the weekend after an explosion at a water-treatment plant in upper Manhattan forced the city to pump raw sewage into the river, officials said yesterday.

A fiery blast ripped through the engine room of the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant on West 135th Street.

It would take 48 hours of constant discharging before area beaches would be impacted, and officials stressed they are working to fix the facility.

But the Health Department warned would-be swimmers and kayakers to avoid the Hudson through the weekend.

The city’s drinking water is not contaminated.

It took 170 firefighters three hours to quell the four-alarm blaze, which is under investigation.

No civilians or plant workers were injured, but two firefighters were treated for exhaustion.