Passengers jump into river; others climb out of windows when a Boston public transit train caught fire in motion

On Thursday morning during the morning commute, a public transportation train in the Boston region caught fire, according to officials. One passenger leaped into a river, while several more climbed out of windows. The fire is only the most recent in a line of hazardous issues with the problematic system.

The person who dove into the water refused medical care, and no injuries were recorded, according to a statement from a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority official.

“I was very scared for all of us,” the woman, who did not want to be identified, told CBS Boston. “We had no idea what was happening. It was like pandemonium.”

“I think I’m safer in the water right now than walking down the tracks,” she recalled thinking.

At before 6:45 a.m., flames and smoke were seen pouring from the lead car of an inbound Orange Line train from the MBTA as it crossed the Mystic River just north of Boston and approached Assembly station in Somerville, according to an MBTA statement. There were about 200 people on board, and MBTA employees took the majority of them to a stop nearby.

One traveler told CBS Boston that as the event happened, “everyone quickly leaped” and “freaked out.”

“There was a strong smell of burning,” she said. “Then the dust kind of settled for a half a second. Then, there was a series of other explosions. And that’s when people really lost it. At this point I’m thinking, ‘This car is going to go up in a ball of flames.’ Like, I thought we were going to be trapped in there and die. It was pretty harrowing.”

The train was hauled to a railyard for an inspection after the power was shut off, and the infrastructure is currently being examined. The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Transit Administration have both been informed by the MBTA.

According to CBS Boston, MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak informed reporters that it seemed as though a piece of metal from the bottom of the Orange Line train fell away and struck the electrified third rail, setting off the fire.

“Our initial indication right now is that a metal sill which runs along the base of the vehicle, approximately one foot by six foot in dimension, came loose on car 1251. This sill came loose and then made contact with the third rail, resulting in the sparking, that if you’ve seen any of the video, is evident, there resulted in the sparking, the smoke and some limited ignition of materials on the underside of the train,” Poftak said.

According to MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo, the train in issue was 43 years old and was not one of the many brand-new Orange Line cars that were recently momentarily taken out of service when one vehicle had a breakdown in its battery compartment. Since then, they have been put back into service.

Following many mishaps that resulted in injuries or fatalities over the course of the previous year, the Federal Transit Administration began an investigation of Boston’s subway system in April. As of last month, the system’s “overall safety program and safety culture” had “longstanding flaws,” which needed to be quickly addressed.

The incident, according to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, “is another evidence of an old transit infrastructure in jeopardy,” she said on Thursday.

She stated that “a dysfunctional MBTA affects the future of our city and area as well as the safety of our people.” I’ll be contacting my coworkers in the area to more actively collaborate with the state on quick systemwide changes.