A fire under a railcar caused smoke to fill the platform at the Eastern Market Metro station in D.C. Thursday afternoon, sending one person to the hospital and leading to an evacuation of the station.
Video from the scene posted on social media showed heavy smoke filling the upper part of the station entrance as a Metro employee ran out shouting “empty the station!”
Fire crews responded to the scene in the 700 Block of Pennsylvania Avenue in Southeast just after 1 p.m. and were able to extinguish the fire.
D.C. Fire and EMS said one person has been taken to hospital with injuries that were not believed to life-threatening. Eight other people were evaluated by emergency responders.
Train service was suspended on the Blue, Orange and Silver Lines between Federal Center and Stadium Armory for about two hours Thursday because of the fire.
The fire department also posted on X that the smoke was caused by an “insulator on fire under railcar in station.” According to Randy Clarke, WMATA general manager and CEO, a third rail shoe assembly came loose.
“We have inspected track & are checking all trains. No anomalies have been found & we don’t believe a system wide issue exist. We will continue our work and update,” he tweeted.
Today’s incident @ Eastern market appears to be a 3rd rail shoe assembly that came loose. We have inspected track & are checking all trains. No anomalies have been found & we don’t believe a system wide issue exist. We will continue our work and update. #wmata pic.twitter.com/R7UpDnrsL6
— Randy Clarke (@wmataGM) February 16, 2024
Andy Off, chief infrastructure officer of Metro, told reporters earlier that the incident involved a 7000-series rail cars — the transit agency’s newest fleet of rail cars which were discovered to have a wheel defect following a 2021 derailment.
“We’re taking a look at all of our 7000-series third-rail collector assemblies to ensure that they are … affixed properly,” Off said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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