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Metro Fires, Threats Slow Morning Commute
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The station was closed until about 7:30 a.m. while police exploded the contents of the luggage, finding nothing harmful. Trains passed through but did not stop, and riders were not allowed into the station.
Metro officials said they would have responded more quickly if they had been alerted sooner. Alexandria police said the response time would have been about the same. "At 3 in the morning, I think a two-hour response time for a bomb squad is not at all unusual," Bartlett said.
Both agencies are conducting investigations, and Metro said it would take appropriate disciplinary action, if necessary.
The incident at Farragut North station occurred at 9:47 a.m., when a short circuit in an electrical line caused a fire along the northbound track for the second day in a row. The fire caused Metro to again operate trains on a single track between Dupont Circle and Judiciary Square. The station was closed at 9:58 a.m. and briefly reopened at 10:48 a.m., but it was shut down for a second time at 10:59 a.m., when the fire began to smolder again. Service resumed at 11:40 a.m.
The fire yesterday and incident Tuesday were caused by stray electrical currents, said D.C. Assistant Fire Chief Lawrence Shultz. The unused electricity flows from the electrified rail and can cause arcing, or sparks.
Steve Feil, Metro's chief operating officer for rail, said the electrical current failed to return to a substation and instead shorted a metal plate in the track bed, causing sparks. Workers removed the metal-to-metal contact, he said. Metro probably will ask a consultant to help determine the source of the problem, he said. "We're not talking about a safety problem," he added.
The Metrobus incident happened at 5:45 a.m. near 18th and K streets NW when the rear-wheel area of a Chevy Chase-bound bus caught fire, officials said. The operator heard a tire blow out and told the three passengers to get off. The bus is one of 100 Orion VI buses that have been having problems with brakes not releasing properly, and yesterday's fire was the second in two days on Orion VI buses, officials said. No injuries were reported in either incident.
The bus manufacturer is inspecting each one in the Metro fleet and plans to make retrofits by the end of the week, Metro officials said.
