Greg Hellman, The Examiner
2007-01-27 08:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

A small debris fire sparked at the Farragut North Metro station during rush hour Friday morning delayed passengers for 15 minutes before service resumed.

Metro personnel noticed the fire at 8:44 a.m. on the Red Line track heading in the direction of Glenmont and extinguished it, Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said. Passengers were offloaded from two trains that were in the station at the time of the fire, and those trains were redirected. Service was restored at 8:59 a.m.

The station sustained no damage, Taubenkibel said.

While debris fires are not a regular occurrence on the Metro, they have occurred several times in the past, Taubenkibel said. The Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority recently expanded its number of trash cans to encourage passengers to dispose of crumpled papers, a common cause of debris fires.

“[Debris fires] do happen from time to time,” he said. “One of the things we try to do in terms of educating the public is if they have newspapers, we encourage them to take them with them or dispose of those papers properly.”

The WMTA also announced in a statement yesterday the Blue, Yellow and Green Lines will all experience delays of 10 to 15 minutes Saturday and Sunday this weekend as they conduct routine maintenance. The maintenance will include rail car testing as well as track switch repairs at the Ronald Reagan National Airport.