Hey, there! Log in / Register
Track-fire hullabaloo at North Station
By adamg on Wed, 01/27/2016 - 6:44am
Wicked C captured the scene around 4:15 p.m. yesterday when a small fire broke out under the edge of the inbound Orange Line platform, the T workers couldn't quite see it to aim a fire extinguisher at it and then a particularly vocal guy from the outbound platform jumped onto the tracks to point it out to them (around 1:40 in the video), which the T workers did not seem to appreciate.
Via Boston Reddit.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Third Rail
Unless that's a gap in the section, he's lucky.
Unfortunately, this is the
Unfortunately, this is the quality of employees the MBTA has these days. It gets worse and worse every year!
Stupid is as Stupid Does!
There is nothing more dangerous than a small fire in an underground train station which can lead to a dangerous and deadly disaster. This situation would have exploded if the Transit Police showed up and arrested the gentleman who saw something and tried to do something.
And...
What do you think the public reaction would have been if the guy hit the 3rd rail and electrocuted himself?
Fires on the tracks are pretty common and don't pose as much of an immediate threat as being on the tracks without the power cut off.
workers on the track = third
workers on the track = third rail should have been shut off already unless someone is a moron
Public reaction would be that
Public reaction would be that he was an idiot, but it's really not that difficult to cross the tracks and not touch the third rail.
The T was already slacking
The T was already slacking but it got 20 times worse after Dan Grabuskas was ousted. Sad, that one day the M.B.T.A will have to become PRIVATIZED because they over pay their employees at the cost of the tax payers.
emergency preparedness
https://www.massdot.state.ma.us/transit/newsarchives/newsupdates/tabid/1...
So for $10 million, T employees are now prepared to deal with bombings, biological warfare and active shooters.
But two T workers struggle to put out a small track fire and keep passengers under control.
Money well spent?
No. Money that
had to be spent on a specific purpose or the T wouldn't get the money at all. This, friends and neighbors, is the root of the problem with spending at the MBTA. Forced to spend money on things they don't need.
Are you people dense?
To everyone who says things like "those employees are slackers they should have just gotten down there and put the fire out." Are you people dense? The third rail that Captain Idiot managed to jump over (or he was smart enough to cross at a gap in the rail but if so he wouldn't have gone down there in the first place) is 600V DC and a lot of amps (since it has to get a whole train running from a start). Let's just say that touching it would be bad.
Now, could a T employee jump in to the pit and put the fire out with touching the third rail? Yes, they probably could. But they won't until they are sure the rail is off. Why? Regulations. I would bet good money that there is a procedure to be followed before going in to the pit, involving calling dispatch to stop trains and probably cutting the power for that section of rail. Then they can go down and clear the fire.
In this case, despite the protests of the passengers (It's been 10 minutes! 20 minutes! 35 minutes!) the timer on the video showed that this all happened in about 4 minutes. Of course, they had to go find another fire extinguisher. But it seems like a pretty good response. The correct response to pretty much any situation like this is not to make rash decisions but to follow procedures which have been put in to place for good safety reasons. In other words: count to 10 and then take your own pulse.
The T employees probably could have explained what they were doing better to the passengers across the platform, but that's not really their job in this situation. Their job is to put the fire out as quickly and safely as possible, and it seems that is what they did.
I Agree Mostly, But...
The three T employees in the video have radios. One appears to be an Inspector.
Instead of feeding the life-trolls on the platform, how about:
- Notify the Orange Line dispatcher that you have a minor track fire.
- Request permission to access the pit with Level 1 ROW protection.
- The dispatcher will hold any southbound traffic and grant access.
- Someone ROW-qualified hop into the pit and put the fire out.
- Hop back out of the pit and let the dispatcher know the fire is out and you've cleared the ROW.
- Service resumes as normal.
Alternatively, if there is an approaching southbound train:
- Ask the dispatcher to direct the motorman to stop just short of the fire.
- There are fire extinguishers in the cab of all the trains.
- Have the motorman hop out and put the fire out directly.
- Service then keeps moving.
NOTE: The third rail does not necessarily have to be shut off when ROW access is required for such a short period of time. After all, why kill a power section through to NEMC for something that can be resolved in about five minutes?
It's Safe When Stations Attendants Are Properly Trained
Skip to time = 6:10 for the "mock-up" rail demonstration.
The rail isn't a safety
The rail isn't a safety concern when you're on the other aide of the tracks from it, the distance is safe and no one is going to get electrocuted with a quick jump down and back up after putting out the fire.
Yes, the video was only 5 minutes, but how long had the fire been burning and what was it that was on fire?
That cire could have been extinguished in less than a minute, with a fire every second counds because you don't know what is on fire and you don't know what that fire could affect in a larger picture. What if the fire was in an electrical conduit that also had all the signal lights for the orange line, and by delaying it burnt out the signals for the entire length of the green line?
While in general for track repairs and maintinance the rail should be shutoff, in an potential emergency situation like that, the workers should be trained and are trained on how to safely navigate the track areas for the very short period of time required.
You are the one that is DENSE
I am a retired MBTA Inspector and if you think any kind of fire isn't a big deal then ask a person's family that died from a small fire or a firefighter who has seen people dead. This is like saying don't worry we will take our time to protect the public’s safety!
https://youtu.be/J7f-uF70vEA