Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Blue Line Fire

I've never been a big fan of the trains. They just feel . . . too unsteady. This, obviously, does not help:
An O'Hare-bound Blue Line train that had just exited the Loop derailed shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday and sparked a fire, prompting the evacuation of scores of people who had to navigated through the smoke-filled subway, officials said.

CTA President Frank Kruesi said the last car of an eight-car northbound train derailed around 5:09 p.m. shortly after leaving the Clark/Lake station. Kruesi said he believes that elements under the train caught on fire.
Two elderly people were listed in serious condition, but thankfully no one was listed as being killed.

2 comments:

-Murphy said...

Good that everyone got out relatively ok. Thankfully, my commute to most places avoids the Blue Line and the Red Line in the loop. So if there's a fire, the strategy is more "walk away in the sunshine," rather than "suffocate in the tunnel." Then again, since I've been in Chicago, there's been one accident that caused injuries on the El, two deaths on the Metra, and lots and lots of accidents in cars.

Anonymous said...

This is why I feel MUCH better on the El portion of things than the subway sections.