MBTA apologizes after piece of Orange Line train sparks fire, forcing passengers to evacuate on bridge

In a press conference Thursday afternoon, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker called the Orange Line MBTA train fire over the Mystic River on Thursday "a colossal failure."

"Obviously, today is just a colossal failure," Baker said. "This stuff is completely unacceptable, and I'm glad the [Federal Transit Administration] will be part of the investigation and follow-up. And we will make sure to do whatever it is that they ask us to do to respond to this."

Gov. Baker said he welcomes the FTA providing guidance on how to prevent incidents like this happening moving forward. But while admitting the T's shortcomings on Thursday, he also defended the agency's track record on the commuter rails.

"The thing I would say about the T, first of all, is if you track their on-time performance, when, on a day like today, means almost nothing, but to a lot of people, 500,000-600,000 a day in Massachusetts, it matters a lot. It's been plus-minutes, high 80s-low 90s, on the commuter rail for months," the Governor said. 

"If we continue to invest in the transit system, I always believe we can continue to get better. We've replaced over half the buses since we took office, and we built bus lanes all over the city. That system now carries more people on a daily basis than the rapid transit system or the commuter rail, and does so far more effectively than when we took office. The work that needs to be done there needs to be continued."

Railroad safety expert Carl Berkowitz says the fire on the Orange Line train should not have happened. The MBTA's preliminary investigation shows a metal cover on the bottom of the car got loose and hit the third rail igniting material under the train.   

The T says that car and the metal panel were inspected last month. Berkowitz says that raises a lot of questions about the inspection process.

"Something like that just doesn't just dislodge after one month," Berkowitz said. "It's not rocket science, you check everything. Bolts get loose, rivets get loose and these things are easily detectible."   

In a press conference Thursday afternoon, MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak apologized to passengers who were on board the Orange Line train that caught fire Thursday morning.

"Obviously this is a frightening incident and not the kind of service we want to offer to our customers. I want to offer my apologies to those who were on that train, who had to experience that. I also want to offer my apologies to the folks who were inconvenienced by the diversion of service that we had to put in place following that incident."

MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak told reporters it appears that piece of metal on the bottom of the Orange Line train came loose and hit the electrified third rail, causing the fire.

"Our initial indication right now is that a metal sill which runs along the base of the vehicle, approximately one foot by six foot in dimension, came loose on car 1251. This sill came loose and then made contact with the third rail, resulting in the sparking, that if you've seen any of the video, is evident, there resulted in the sparking, the smoke and some limited ignition of materials on the underside of the train," Poftak said.

Of the roughly 200 passengers who escaped the burning MBTA Orange Line train Thursday morning on a bridge over the Mystic River, one woman actually jumped off the train and into the water. The woman who jumped into the river told WBZ-TV's Anna Meiler that she didn't feel comfortable getting out on solid ground.

"I was very scared for all of us. We had no idea what was happening. It was like pandemonium."

To read the full story, click here.

Passengers on the MBTA Orange Line train that caught fire on a bridge over the Mystic River Thursday morning said it was a frantic scramble to get out safely.   

"People immediately jumped, freaked out. There was a strong smell of burning," Jennifer Thomson said. "Then the dust kind of settled for a half a second. Then, there was a series of other explosions. And that's when people really lost it. At this point I'm thinking, 'This car is going to go up in a ball of flames.' Like, I thought we were going to be trapped in there and die. It was pretty harrowing."

To read the full story, click here.

Orange Line passenger Jennifer Donovan:

"We were between Wellington and Assembly station and suddenly the train stopped, which is strange. And we heard and explosion or a really loud bang. And we saw smoke coming from the car directly in front of ours.

"Understandably people got very frightened and started screaming. There was no announcement or anything over the speaker, so we were all just kind of unsure what was going on.

"Some good Samaritans tried to actually pry the doors open to get us all out of the car, but unfortunately they wouldn't unlock. Luckily we were able to get to an emergency exit after some time and actually exit the train by jumping from a large platform. But there were other cars that had to break the glass [of windows] in order to get out."

MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak held a press conference Thursday afternoon:

At approximately 6:45 a.m., flames and smoke were observed on the head car of a southbound Orange Line train approaching Assembly Station.  Power was turned off between Wellington and Assembly stations and the Somerville and Medford Fire Departments responded.  No injuries were reported.  

Assisted by MBTA personnel, approximately 200 passengers were walked off the train, but some people did evacuate through windows.  Public safety personnel picked up a person who had jumped into the water after exiting the train.  The person declined medical attention.  The incident train has been brought to the Wellington rail yard for an investigation. The MBTA has notified the FTA and the NTSB of the incident.       

Orange Line returned to regular service by early Thursday afternoon. 

Shuttle buses originally replaced train service between Oak Grove and Community College.