A train catches fire on a Boston rail bridge, prompting some passengers to flee for their lives.
US train passengers leapt out carriage windows for their lives – including one into the river 10 metres below – after the train caught fire on a Boston rail bridge.
About 200 people were aboard the subway train as it crossed the Mystic River when fire broke out in one of the carriages about 6.45am on Thursday (late Thursday NZT).
A woman, who was not identified, jumped more than 10 metres into the river below while other passengers jumped the other way onto the tracks, Somerville Fire Chief Charles Breen said on Friday.
The Somerville Fire Marine Unit, which had been training in the river, gave the woman a life jacket after she refused to board their boat and those of other emergency responders, Breen said.
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The woman swam to shore as emergency responders kept tabs on her.
“Once ashore,” Breen wrote, “she refused repeated offers of medical assistance and walked away.”
Most of the fire went out on its own after the electrical system was shut down. No injuries were reported.
The incident was the latest in a series of incidents that have undermined confidence in Boston’s subway system.
A man died in April after being dragged along a station platform when his arm got caught in a train door, and in September, nine people were injured after a station escalator malfunctioned.
In June, the US Federal Transit Administration issued a series of “special directives” after an investigation of what it called “long-standing issues”.
Problems included delayed critical maintenance, lapses in workers’ safety certifications and an understaffed operations centre.
A video posted on the Boston Globe’s website showed smoke billowing from beneath the front of the train and then several women jumping out a window as another passenger helps them from below.
One woman who said she was in the rail car told the Globe that she saw flames coming up both sides of the train and that a man kicked out a window after he couldn’t open an emergency exit.
A “preliminary inspection” had found that part of the train’s metal side panel touched the third rail, which caused the fire.
– With AP
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