Passengers recount harrowing East Bay BART derailment
ORINDA -- A BART train derailed Monday morning, briefly catching fire, filling several cars with smoke and sending a number of people to the hospital.
The derailment happened shortly after 9 a.m. near the Orinda station. Nine passengers from one car that derailed and caught fire were taken to medical facilities for evaluation.
"Man, it just felt like a crash and smoke everywhere in the car. I thought we were gonna blow up. I thought we were gonna die," said one passenger at the station.
The train only made it about 1,000 yards from the station when the driver was told by the command center that a piece of track-switching equipment called an "interlocking" wasn't working. She was instructed to switch the track manually.
READ MORE: BART train derails, catches fire between Orinda and Lafayette
"The train operator did off-board the train and crank the interlocking and then reboarded the train," said BART spokesperson Jim Allison.
While it's not common practice, Alison said drivers are trained to switch the track manually. A BART source said the interlocking in that area was brand new, recently installed.
"Then the train started moving and just started a loud pop-popping and I just saw sparks and then flames," said passenger Enrique Gonzalez.
He was in the second car which ended up derailed and straddling two parallel tracks at a 45-degree angle.
"I was sitting in the window seat right above where the actual fire started and it took me a while to realize exactly what was going on. I heard all the popping and I saw the flames shoot up right by the window where I was sitting," Gonzalez said.
The train car began filling with smoke and passenger Lia Burrell described what happened next:
"Then you see the orange and the red in the smoke and it didn't stop. And we all got up to run and go to the next car to at least run. And so, you know how a car smokes and then explodes? We didn't want that to happen! So, we just had to run for our lives -- literally!" Burrell recalled.
"People started coming in, like, 'There's a fire! The train's on fire!'" said a passenger named Laina in the next car. "Nobody said anything, there was no announcement and then they opened the doors and we had to jump out onto the tracks outside. It was ... it was scary!"
The passengers all had to walk back along the track to the station. At 2 p.m., Allison said a crane was en route to lift the two damaged cars back onto the track and that two eastbound lanes of Highway 24 would be closed for about six hours for that operation. Meanwhile, back at the station, Lia hoped she'd had enough excitement to last her the rest of the year.
"It better be the biggest thing that happens in 2024! I don't want no more smoke or booms!" she said.