Unsuck DC Metro: Ol' Smokey

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Ol' Smokey

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NY Subway allows payment via iPhone (Mashable via @tracytran)
Metro-types (WashingTina)

Comments (10)

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All 4 Lacosse · 757 weeks ago

someone toss a cigarette?

either that or the track is haunted by the ghost of metro riders' past

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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@VeggieTart · 757 weeks ago

Or a trash fire. Looked (and sounded) like it was on an Orange Line station along I-66.

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Ryan · 757 weeks ago

I'm neither a firefighter nor transit operator, but somehow I don't think that hitting the fire with an extinguisher, then driving your train into the cloud of smoke/fire retardant and making a stop right on top of where the fire may or may not be out is really the best of plans.

2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

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Mike · 756 weeks ago

I actually give the train operator credit for taking quick action and making the right call here. From the video,it looks like it was a very small fire. Putting it out himself with the fire extinguisher seems like a good plan. What was the alternative - wait to pull into the station, thus effectively shutting down the metro line, while they wait for the fire department to come and confirm that a tiny trash fire is out completely? That sounds like what the lazier train operators would do.

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jkuchen · 756 weeks ago

Looks like Dunn Loring, westbound track.

Um, wasn't that the fire department with the ladder over the wall? THEY WERE ALREADY THERE! Not that there was much communication between them and the driver, though.

And we've single-tracked so often at Dunn Loring that we'd be accustomed to it by now.

While it's nice that the driver took the perogative to use the extinguisher, wouldn't there be any concern about using it so close to the third rail? I know, it's an A-B-C extinguisher, so there isn't any danger for the driver, but wouldn't you expect it to have some effect on the third rail?

The professionals were there. Let them do their job.

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@FixWMATA · 757 weeks ago

I love how he brings the fire extinguisher BACK on the train with it STILL GOING! Classic! "Breathe? Nah... I'm just driving the train..."

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@FixWMATA · 757 weeks ago

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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@FixWMATA · 757 weeks ago

Try again...

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@kara_h · 757 weeks ago

So after pulling a classic metro-up he then proceeds to overshoot the platform with the front part of the train too?

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Elc · 755 weeks ago

About the "Fire incident in DC metro" video - I`m the person who took this video. It happened in Sptember 18, 2010 in Dunn-Loring Merifield station, Orange line, at 5:05 pm ET. I was taking metro to Vienna station. I don`t know what was the cause of the fire but it seemed to be that somebody tried to extinguish fire before the driver on this video but didn`t finish job well - I say it because the part of the ties around the fire was white, such as somebody used fire extinguisher not long before it.