T Train Rolls Over Track Fire
BROOKLINE (CBS) -- It caught a lot of attention in Brookline's Coolidge Corner about 7 p.m. Wednesday. A Green Line MBTA train didn't stop when a trash fire broke out on the track, and was directed to move right over it.
"The T pulled up to within 10 feet of the fire, and I thought, 'Well it's not going to go,'" said Bret Silverman. But it did just that as he took pictures with his cell phone.
"It just seemed strange to a number of us standing on the sidewalk, looking," he said.
Samantha Desenberg ran from a nearby coffee shop where she was working and took her own cell phone video saying she was unsure what would happen next.
"The train was going over it, and the flames were getting bigger," she said.
WBZ-TV's Beth Germano reports.
The MBTA says it was a minor fire that left burn marks on the track after being quickly put out by Brookline firefighters. The MBTA wouldn't comment on the procedure train operators follow in such a circumstance, but a spokesman says they will talk with the employees involved.
Silverman says one was on the track giving directions. "He definitely signaled to the driver and waved his hand with some kind of verbal cue, 'Come on, go,'" he said.
