MBTA employees are directing passengers at Forest Hills and
Needham stations to shuttle buses that have temporarily replaced trains after
the fire stopped the rails’ signals from working, according to Leslie Aun,
spokeswoman for Keolis, the company that operates the commuter rail system. She
said passengers on the Franklin and Providence lines are being diverted onto
the Fairmont line, and 10- to 20-minute delays are to be expected.
She recommended that “anyone seeking to travel between
Forest Hill and [the] Back Bay plan to take the Orange Line or consider another
form of transportation.”
According to Boston fire spokesman Steve MacDonald,
firefighters arrived at the scene of the electrical vault fire about 150 yards
away from the Forest Hills station at 6:44 a.m.
Working with commuter rail staff to shut down the power to
the vault. Cannot extinguish until power off.
— Boston Fire Dept. (@BostonFire) April 4, 2015
Standing by with dry chemical extinguishers to use once that
happens.
— Boston Fire Dept. (@BostonFire) April 4, 2015
FIRE PHOTO: BOSTON 2nd Alarm #MBTA #Amtrak at Forest Hills
station MT @bostonnewsnow #PFFM_ALERT pic.twitter.com/cgCN7fFyY1
— Fire Fighters of MA (@THE_PFFM) April 4, 2015
Firefighters battled the blaze with air bottles and dry
chemical extinguishers as they waited for power to the vault to be turned off
so water could be used to knock it down, MacDonald said.
It took roughly an hour and a half to cut power off to the
electrical unit while the blaze continued, burning the insulation off wiring
within the vault, he said. This created a “toxic environment” for the
firefighters, said MacDonald, who explained that as a result of the toxic gases
being let off, the department’s fire chief rang a second alarm for more
manpower.
MacDonald said no injuries related to the fire were
reported, and the fire was extinguished with water by 8:15 a.m.
The Orange Line near Forest Hills station runs alongside the
commuter rail and Amtrak tracks affected by the fire, which MBTA spokesman Joe
Pesaturo said was delayed for six minutes during the fire.
Aun said that officials suspect a lightning strike during an
early morning storm may have caused the fire, but the cause is still under
investigation.