Fire under MBTA Red Line train car leads to service interruptions

A piece of mechanical equipment on the underside of a Red Line train caught fire on Thursday morning, leading to service impacts for MBTA riders.

The MBTA said just before 6 a.m. that there were delays of around 20 minutes due to a disabled train at the Charles/MGH station. Shuttle buses were brought in to replace train service between Harvard and Broadway, the T announced at around 6:15 a.m.

The T said that a "mechanical issue with the train at Charles/MGH caused a smoke condition within the Station."

Later in the morning while addressing news media, Boston Fire Department Deputy Chief James Greene said that crews were called at around 5:45 a.m. for reports of a fire on the Red Line. Greene said that firefighters arrived to find a "small" fire and passengers self-evacuating.

Crews were able to put the fire out after securing the power and hosing the train car down with water, Greene said.

There were no injuries reported.

In a later update, an MBTA spokesperson said that power has since been restored and the train was being moved out of the way. The spokesperson added that the smoke was from an air compressor control box, and said "there has been no confirmation of flames."

At around 8:40 a.m., the MBTA announced that the station was reopened and service had resumed.

“I was about the second or third car back and then we stopped, and I could kind of smell something,” commuter Chris Rockett said.

Rockett was one of dozens of passengers forced off the train that had just started crossing the Longfellow Bridge when the operator noticed an air compressor control box under the first train car possibly on fire.

“They just came on and said everyone needs to evacuate the train, and then when we got out, I looked and it looked like almost like the skyline had like a cloud, but it was white smoke,” he said.

“It’s just always something," Rockett said of the T. "It’s so unreliable.”

As passengers evacuated the Charles/MGH Station, firefighters rushed in.

But when they hooked into the standpipe system to get water to the elevated platform, a joint on the 4-inch pipe separated, flooding the station, and forcing firefighters to get creative.

“We brought a hose over at like the base of the Longfellow, we also brought water cans up, just basically like cans of water that we manually carry up, and we were able to extinguish it that way," Boston Deputy Fire Chief James Greene said.

MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng was on site to see the issues for himself, and promised that progress is being made to improve service and safety systemwide.

“We have work to do, though, obviously, and I want folks to know that we are going to be persistent and determined and they will see a system that they can be proud of," he said.

Eng said while this incident remains under investigation, they have confirmed the standpipes here were inspected and passed within the required 5-year timeframe.