BART service recovering after electrical fire at Civic Center station in San Francisco
By Tim Fang
BART service is recovering Tuesday afternoon after a fire on the BART tracks at the Civic Center station in San Francisco led to service disruptions, officials said.
According to the San Francisco Fire Department, an electrical fire happened on the third rail around 11:30 a.m.
“Crews quickly and safely extinguished the fire with a dry chemical extinguisher,” firefighters said in a statement.
No injuries were reported.
BART said in a separate statement that there was an initial report of a blown insulator on the trackway.
“A blown insulator makes a loud noise and generates smoke and arcing. We evacuated the station and San Francisco Fire responded to put out the flames,” the agency said.
Following the fire, crews repaired damage on the third rail, while service ran on the undamged track. Civic Center station reopened shortly after 12:25 p.m.
In an update posted shortly before 1:40 p.m., BART released additional details about what led up to the incident, saying a foreign object spotted in the trackway was blown onto the third rail by wind. There was no train in the trackway at the time, officials said.
Around 2 p.m., the agency announced it was recovering from the issue.
Tuesday’s incident follows two other major service disruptions to hit the BART system in less that a week.
Service between the South Hayward and Berryessa / North San Jose was halted for several hours on Thursday following a vandalism incident near the Hayward maintenance yard. On Monday, an equipment issue near the West Oakland station led to no Red Line and no Green Line service during the morning commute.
