On Tuesday evening, transit services on Chicago’s Brown and Red Lines faced significant disruptions due to a fire beneath a train at the Belmont station in Lakeview. The Purple Line was also affected by this incident.
Fortunately, no injuries were reported despite the typically high traffic in the elevated corridor. Among those affected was a woman traveling north on the Brown Line when the blaze occurred.
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“Suddenly, the train came to a halt,” recounted Carla Martinez, a passenger. “The conductor initially didn’t know how long the delay would last. About thirty minutes later, he informed us that all electricity had been cut off across the lines, so we just waited there.”
Martinez was joined by five other passengers in the last car of the train, positioned just behind the one stalled at Belmont.
After an hour, Martinez and her fellow passengers were carefully assisted down ladders from a height of eight feet to the tracks below. Firefighters managed the evacuation process efficiently, ensuring safety amidst the smoky atmosphere.
“A few cars ahead of us had passengers who were let down first,” Martinez explained. “I descended a slightly longer ladder, but I must not have done it well because they later decided we should all proceed to the front.”
They then had to trudge carefully to the next exit point down to the street. Water from the fires trucks was everywhere. Neither Martinez nor anyone else were injured.
“It is Chicago… you just take it in stride. A lot of things could’ve been worse. That’s what we decided on the train,” Martinez said.
The CTA tried to get bus shuttles in quickly to replace rail service between Howard and Fullerton on the Red Line and between Kimball and Fullerton on the Brown Line.
The CTA said around 9 p.m. that Brown, Red and Purple trains are running with major delays.
Some trains and platforms may be busier than usual as crews work to restore normal service, the CTA said.
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