Passenger Trains > Incident at Chicago Union Station

Not sure what’s going on but there are multiple Chicago Fire, Police and Ambulances on Canal Street at the entrance to the station. There is also white smoke rising between tracks 4 and 6 through the skylight south of Jackson. The Tunnel Rescue unit just arrived.

Posted from iPhone

https://abc7chicago.com/smoke-seen-coming-from-union-station-reports-of-train-on-fire/5345825/

Heavy smoke in south concourse. Really surprised they haven’t evacuated it yet. Great Hall seems fine and it’s kind of funny watching people running to catch their non-running train.

Posted from iPhone

Per some pics posted on Twitter, looks the a/c unit on Metra 210 caught fire.

Posted from iPhone

Whatever it is, they deployed hoses. Now saying they are removing them to release a train...

Some more intel on the incident. -Matt

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2019/6/13/18678436/metra-train-fire-union-station

 

RIP METX 210

I presume METX 210 is (or was) a locomotive.  What type?
 

Metra 210 is an EMD F40PHM-2. Since it appears that it was the air conditioning unit that caught fire, I wouldn't write it off yet. Perhaps, this will bump it to the head of the line for the rebuild program.

Here's a few shots from street level:
1. Looking south from Jackson Boulevard
2. CFD Tunnel Rescue unit
3. A view from the east side of Canal Street looking north.
 

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I’ve seen people with electronic cigarettes producing more smoke than that!

Valleyman

From the pics I have seen...it sure looks like more than the A/C unit caught fire!  Almost the whole middle of the loco was engulfed..

So this morning, Metra 210 is sitting all by itself at BNSF's 14th Street facility. My morning train which normally comes in on Track 8 came in on Track 4 this morning where we were greeted by darkness as the platform lighting was out. Thanks to whoever made that call!
1. Metra 210 at 14th Street
2. Darkness...

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Do you know any details about the crew on yesterday's crispy critter?!?   Specifically, if the blaze had not advanced  significantly, did anyone open the A/C breaker ( if that was indeed where it started) and immediately begin the PASS procedure w/ fire extinguishers.
We put out a fair amount of engine fires years ago, by being fairly aggressive and jumping right in there, but many employees won't even try to fight a blaze anymore, which for all the general adrenaline addiction-- as evidenced by a lot of their edgy leisure time activities --is an interesting paradox.  That is a lot of juice out of a big A/ C, though, so I could fully understand if someone didn't want to get close to it--that's why opening the breaker would be your first move.
Again, I don't know, and am just asking questions to figure out what happened.  I'm sure people a lot more important than me are already on it.

Would not think an AC unit could cause much of a fire due to the nature of its refrigerant as it will help put a fire out. Also the electrical part is not much different than what is in most cars and trucks.  Sounds more like an exhaust or fuel leak fire but hey lets wait for the report as it shouldn't take much to figure it out.

Screen capture from Twitter:

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IC_2024 Wrote:
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> We put out a fair amount of engine fires years
> ago, by being fairly aggressive and jumping right
> in there, but many employees won't even try to
> fight a blaze anymore

Is it allowed? I've been in several AMTK safety briefings that include the instructions for a fire of any size or origin: Evacuate immediately;do not attempt to use a fire extinguisher.

TAW

A/C = Air Conditioning or HEP Alternating Current?

As an electrician going on 42 yrs, those units  are at least 480V or max, out at 575 or 600 Volt. Unless they are at an odd ball locomotive voltage. The prior advice would be to turn off the feed breaker unless it already tripped. A lot safer to manage a fire without a high voltage present.

Lurch_in_ABQ Wrote:
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> A/C = Air Conditioning or HEP Alternating Current?
A/C is air conditioning
AC is alternating current

sp8192 Wrote:
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> From the pics I have seen...it sure looks like
> more than the A/C unit caught fire!  Almost the
> whole middle of the loco was engulfed..
I had only seen pics with just the A/C unit ablaze until I saw this report on CBS 2 Chicago that shows considerably more flames:
https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/06/13/union-station-train-fire-bnsf-evacuation/
Yikes! And the claim that there was "no smoke" in the station was false based on my own observation.