Fire Breaks Out Briefly On MBTA Commuter Rail Train In Canton
CANTON (CBS) – A mechanical issue caused flames to shoot from the engine of an MBTA commuter rail train at Canton Junction Thursday night. It happened on around 8:30 p.m. on an outbound train on the Providence-Stoughton line.
"All of the sudden we could just really smell this gaseous-like smoke smell coming through the train," said passenger Tyler Duquette. "We were like what the heck is going on?"
Passengers shot video and took photos of the fire while trying figuring out what to do next.
"I was a little bit scared just like when everyone was getting off at first obviously the conductor sounded authoritative," said Meghan Windle.
Several people WBZ-TV spoke with said it was a very confusing few minutes.
"They told us they we could get back on, so we all started getting back on," Duquette said. "After that, about not even ten seconds later when we got back on, they said alright, back off."
Literal flames coming out of my #MBTA train rn. ????????
— Zachary Taylor Hall (@ZachTaylorHall) July 26, 2019
Can a single day go by without a catastrophic failure occurring? ???? pic.twitter.com/pCWXqnUiFi
"Train 831 experienced a mechanical issue tonight at Canton Junction, with a suspected engine turbo charger fault, which caused smoke and a small amount of flame to be emitted from the engine exhaust system," the MBTA said in a statement.
No one was hurt. Keolis, which operates the commuter rail, said the fire went out on its own when the crew shut down the engine.
Passengers were transferred to another train.