During the Monday afternoon rush hour, a Yellow Line train leaving from L’Enfant Plaza – one of the city’s busiest stations – came to a halt. The train’s cabins went dark, filled with smoke, and a hazy, yellowish cloud filled L’Enfant station.
One woman died, recently identified as Carol Glover, 61, of Alexandria, Virginia. While the cause of death hasn’t been released, 83 others were taken to hospitals with symptoms of smoke inhalation, two of whom are in critical condition.
Witnesses said metro riders waited for as long as an hour, trapped inside the smoke-filled train, until firefighters made their way into the tunnel to rescue them.
“The power went off. The train stopped. The lights went out. And the smoke appeared,” said passenger Jason Hill. “It built up fast, man, until you couldn’t see anything. Eventually it was like we were basically running out of air.”
Passengers screamed, choked, and some lost consciousness.
The Culprit
“We didn’t know what to do,” another passenger told reporters. “And we weren’t getting a lot of information.”
While authorities were slow to offer any explanations for the incident, National Transportation Safety Board investigator Michael Flanigon told reporters Monday night that problem came from an electrical malfunction with the tunnel’s third rail.
— Michael Li (@mcpli) January 12, 2015
The malfunction is known as “arcing.”
“The third rail is high-voltage direct current, and if that current starts arcing to another conductor that it is not designed to connect with, you get a flash,” Flanigon said. “In certain cases, that arc can start sort of feeding on itself, and it actually generates gases that are more conductive.”
Water, for instance, can cause arcing if it comes into contact with the third rail. But the investigation has yet to find the precise cause of the arcing.
The electrified third rail is partly to blame for the delayed rescue attempt.
— Jimi (@Supamantan) January 12, 2015
While the Yellow Line train was trapped inside the tunnel 800 feet from L’Enfant Plaza, firefighters could hear other trains running on the stations lower level, and wanted to be sure that the electricity was cut to the third rail.
“They wanted to make sure that before they put people on the track bed that the power was actually off,” interim chief of D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Eugene A. Jones said. “Once we worked with Metro to ensure the power to the track bed was off, we made entry and made rescues.”
Tuesday Morning
While all trains bypassed L’Enfant Monday evening, ventilation fans cleared most of the smoke and the station was reopened Tuesday morning.
Getting around the nation’s capital can be a difficult process, and commuters didn’t shy away from metro use on Tuesday.
— Adam Tuss (@AdamTuss) January 13, 2015
“I have no fear of getting on the train this morning,” said one commuter. “I’ve been riding the train for years and this is the first time something like that has happened.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser released a statement expressing sadness by Monday’s “fatality aboard the Metrorail.”
— Toyin Adesanya (@toyinadesanya) January 7, 2015
“I have been in contact with the WMATA leadership, and we will continue to keep the District’s resources available in the aftermath of the incident,” her statement reads.
Many are questioning the efficiency of a system that left victims trapped for so long during an emergency situation. There is no comment yet on whether WMATA or city policies will be reevaluated in the wake of Monday’s accident.
