One Dead, Dozens Hospitalized After Heavy Smoke at D.C. Metro Tunnel
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Source: http://www.nbcwashington.com/
One woman is dead, dozens of other people were hospitalized, and three remain in critical condition after the upper level of the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station in southeast D.C. filled with smoke Monday afternoon.
Transportation Alternatives to Metro
A Virginia-bound Yellow Line train was in the tunnel just south of the station around 3:20 p.m. when it stopped for unknown reasons.
Read more: http://www.nbcwashington.com/traffic/transit/LEnfant-Plaza-Metro-Station-Closed-Due-to-Smoke-288309501.html
Anyone?

ReRe
(11,144 posts)2:35am EDT where I am, happened about 12 hours ago now. All I see on CNN is Paris terror. Thanks for report.
JDDavis
(725 posts)Some sort of mechanical problem, or something more serious.
"ONE DEAD, and Dozens hospitalized" doesn't sound like a simple mechanical/smoke kind of problem.
From the link:
"84 people taken to area hospitals, three in critical condition"
Sounds like something more serious than a mechanical problem.
"Don't know exactly why it stopped", one of the officials said in the video.
ColesCountyDem
(6,944 posts)nitpicker
(7,153 posts)A limited bus shuttle is replacing service between the Pentagon and L'Enfant Metro stations for those who aren't riding the long way around through Rosslyn.
I know the tunnel the train got stuck in, between L'Enfant Plaza and emerging out to cross the Potomac into Virginia.
nitpicker
(7,153 posts)No reason yet given for the third-line arcing ahead of the train.
Extra Blue line trains will run from the VA end of the Yellow Line thru Rosslyn into DC, decreasing Orange/Silver service through that tunnel.
DebJ
(7,699 posts)"Mike Flanigon, the railroad investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said at about 11:30 Monday night that the Virginia-bound train stopped about 800 feet beyond the station platform. About 1,000 feet on from there, "an arcing event" involving the third rail and power-supply cables was detected, which caused the smoke.
He said that arcing events happen when a current begins arcing to a conductor it's not designed to connect with -- it happens fairly regularly, and "you'll see a pop or a flash" while riding a train -- but in certain cases, "that arc can start feeding on itself, and it generates gases that are conductive." That produces a situation where, he said, "the worse it gets, the worse it gets."
He added that there was no fire on the train, nor did it derail. The investigation has just begun, he said."
http://liveblogwp.wtop.com/Event/Rail_impacted_after_LEnfant_Plaza_temporarily_closed
greatauntoftriplets
(177,205 posts)Please see this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014987105