Burning backpack shuts down Broad Street Line
Fire erupted in a North Philadelphia SEPTA station Tuesday afternoon, shutting down part of the Broad Street line for hours and stranding thousands of commuters during a peak travel time.
Fire erupted in a North Philadelphia SEPTA station Tuesday afternoon, shutting down part of the Broad Street line for hours and stranding thousands of commuters during a peak travel time.
The fire began shortly before 2 p.m. in a shed used to store construction debris on a subway platform at the Girard Avenue station, said Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers. Investigators are still trying to determine how the fire began, but early reports indicated that someone set a backpack aflame and tossed it into the shed.
Though the fire was quickly placed under control, the investigation into the blaze halted subway service in both directions between the Walnut-Locust and Cecil B. Moore stations until about 7 p.m., about five hours after the trouble started. Broad Ridge Spur service continues to be shut down and northbound Broad Street line trains are not stopping at the Girard Avenue Station. In addition to the fire investigation, the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives was also "looking into" the incident, according to SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams.
An average of 120,000 people use the Broad Street line each weekday, Williams said.
SEPTA dispatched dozens of shuttle buses to Broad Street, but passengers poured into the streets in greater numbers than the buses could accommodate, some buses were not clearly labeled, and frustration mounted.
"It's a mess aboveground and a mess below ground," Ayers said Tuesday afternoon. "Folks are trying to get home."
Broad Street was filled early Tuesday evening with commuters wandering back and forth, talking amongst themselves or on their cell phones, grumbling and keeping an eye out for the next SEPTA bus with enough room for them to squeeze in. Policemen guarded the entrances of the Broad Street line at Girard Avenue to keep people out.
By 3:30 p.m., Masterman and Bodine High Schools had dismissed their students, though not before announcing that the Broad street line was shut down. Hordes of students walked to Broad Street to catch the bus, some dialing their parents to let them know what had happened.
Vincent Stratton, a seventh grader at Masterman, said his mother works at City Hall, so she knew what had happened.
"She's not really worried, but she just wants me to get home as quick as possible," he said.
A train approaching the Girard station ended up stuck on the tracks for 45 minutes when the fire started. Julia Kleinhanf, a sophomore at Temple, had just gotten out of class and was on her way to work at Walnut and Juniper Streets when the packed train she was on came to a stop right before Girard. After some time passed, she said, the train began filling with smoke.
"They didn't say anything at all," said Kleinhanf, 21. "Nobody knew what was going on. I ended up walking to the back of the train because there was less smoke back there. . . . I was definitely really scared."
Passengers began making cell phone calls, reporting that they were stuck, she said. People began hearing rumors on Twitter.com that there had been an explosion.
"We were there for so long that people started getting worried," Kleinhanf said. "It went from not really bad to very, very, bad really quickly."
Eventually, Kleinhanf said, the passengers were led out the front of the train and through corridors, then outside to the street. Though it took a half-hour, Kleinhanf opted to walk the rest of the way to work.
