Fire on BART train leads to evacuations
According to the transit agency, passengers on a BART train were evacuated at an Oakland station on Monday after smoke and a fire were reported on the train.
OAKLAND, California. – According to the transit agency, passengers on a BART train were evacuated at an Oakland station on Monday afternoon after fire and smoke were reported on the train.
BART said there were reports of smoke and fire rising from the end of an eastbound train from 19th Street Station to MacArthur Station around 2:30 p.m.
Passengers were evacuated from the train at MacArthur Station. Passengers told KTVU they heard a loud bang, followed by thick smoke rising toward the front of the train.
It was unclear where the fire and smoke came from. Some passengers had to pull the emergency brake because of the smoke.
No injuries were reported, the transportation company said. However, KTVU observed some people being transported away in ambulances.
Mariam Ghvamichava, a law student taking the train home to Berkeley, evacuated the crowded train around 2:30 p.m. along with dozens of other people after a passenger opened an emergency door, she said.
According to Ghvamichava, there were no announcements over the intercom, and the occupants of her car only noticed the problem because people in other cars moved away from what appeared to be smoke coming from one car.
“It was a scary situation,” she said.
A BART spokesperson said on the agency’s recorded media hotline that “all passengers were evacuated from the train,” but Ghvamichava said that at least in her car, no one asked anyone to leave the train.
Another BART spokeswoman, Alicia Trost, said at 5 p.m. that it was too early to confirm whether announcements had been made about the situation and options for getting to safety.
Ghvamichava said it started with the train stopping near MacArthur Station and then just staying there. She said she assumed it was just a technical issue, but then she saw passengers quickly boarding their car.
“A lot of people rushed out of the other cabin and panicked a little when they came into our cabin,” she said.
Ghvamichava said passengers had a discussion about what to do and eventually someone simply opened the emergency door, allowing other passengers from other carriages to get off.
“We know that passengers on board activated the door release for self-evacuation,” BART said.
Ghvamichava said she was alarmed when, after getting to safety, she learned that there was an energized “third rail” running along the BART tracks and that no one had helped anyone get off the train.
She took video of people getting off the train and walking along the tracks.
“It’s really scary because I didn’t know there was so much electricity there,” she said. “And in the video you can actually see how close people are walking there.”
At 4:45 p.m., a BART spokesman said the cause of the smoke was “a train connector blocking the power rail.”
Trost said the smoke was probably caused by an arc of electricity, which was not fire but looked like fire.
“When the conductor saw people leaving the train, he got out to help them,” Trost said.
Ghvamichava said fire and police personnel were on the scene after everyone was evacuated to safety, and BART offered vouchers to the trapped passengers.
The transport company announced that normal operations resumed at around 4:22 p.m.
Katy St. Clair of Bay City News contributed to this story.
