By Allison Steele
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — 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, Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said. Investigators were still trying to determine how the fire began, but early reports suggested that someone had set a backpack aflame and tossed it into the shed.
Though the fire was quickly brought 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. Northbound trains on the Broad Street line were bypassing the Girard station, and there was no Broad-Ridge Spur service.
In addition to the fire investigation, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives was looking into the incident, according to SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams.
On average, 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 above ground 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 among 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. Police guarded entrances to 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 calling 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 University, had just gotten out of class and was on her way to work at Juniper and Walnut Streets when the packed train she was on came to a stop right before the Girard station. 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 phone calls, reporting that they were stuck, she said. Rumors circulated on Twitter 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, 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.
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