On Thursday afternoon an incident took place at Eastern Market Metro Station which led to the station being filled with a startling amount of yellow-tinted smoke, reaching the entrance gates of the station to where the ticket kiosks are. The incident, which was recorded and shared live on social media showed an immense amount of smoke filling the entrance to the station and a great deal of yelling telling passengers at the station to evacuate.
Immediately following the incident, authorities were quick on the scene to control the fire and asses nine patients for inhalation resulting in one person even needing to be taken to the hospital for further treatment. Fortunately, according to a statement by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) none of the injuries appear to be life-threatening.
According to a statement by D.C. Fire and EMS representatives, an insulator on fire underneath a railcar caused the loud noise and smoke that alarmed passengers on the platform and prompted the evacuation. Fortunately, quickly after responding the fire was extinguished, and exhaust fans were turned on by D.C. Fire at the Eastern Market Metro Station to ventilate the smoke. WMATA later went on to confirm the insulator being the source of the fire and diagnosed that an assembly box on the side of the 7000-series train came loose and began to ‘rub’ against the electrified third rail. When this happened, electricity began to arc from the third rail and make contact with the underside of the train not built to sustain contact with the extremely high voltage. The result was significant sparking and banging noises that led one of the passengers to pull the emergency break when they arrived at Eastern Market to open the doors to evacuate.
WMATA also highlighted that this is a very isolated incident and that there is little to no concern that this will happen to other D.C. metro trains, including other 7000-series trains. Nonetheless, they also asserted that they will be conducting an immediate audit of the entire fleet to ensure that all equipment is functioning properly and that this type of incident does not happen again.