Train Fire Closes Major Station

[Gavin-D]

A major railway station was evacuated after reports of a fire in a train. Smoke was seen coming from a train at about 1840 BST at Birmingham New Street station, a spokesman for British Transport Police said. Thousands of commuters were told to leave trains and were guided to the car park while shops and the station concourse were closed. However, more than half the platforms re-opened at 1920 BST as firefighters investigated the incident. Network Rail said a fire was reported on an Arriva cross country service as it entered New Street.
A spokesman said some trains were having to wait outside the station and apologised for any inconvenience.
He said: "Hopefully passengers will realise it's in their best interests that we make their safety our main priority.
"We've done our best to minimise disruption. "The station staff have seen no immediate evidence of a fire on the train.
"But the fire brigade has been called and will confirm whether there has been a fire."
Delays to trains of up to 45 minutes can be expected until 21:00.

Taken From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west ... 548207.stm

Regards
Gav

[jtiffin]

I hope there are no deaths.

[ArrivaTrains]

It was an exhaust fire on a XC voyager.

[oldrocker]

Why on Earth do we overreact so much to things?

Don't tell me . . . Health and Safety !

[shebarose]

What do you expect its a Voyager

[45002]

Why on Earth do we overreact so much to things?

Don't tell me . . . Health and Safety !

Remember in 1973,a Duff caught (think it was Atlas ?) fire at new street and we sat there watching the driver put the fireout,it gutted the cab

No been evacuated in them days

MARTIN

[desiro5]

Why on Earth do we overreact so much to things?

Don't tell me . . . Health and Safety !

Remember in 1973,a Duff caught (think it was Atlas ?) fire at new street and we sat there watching the driver put the fireout,it gutted the cab

No been evacuated in them days

MARTIN

Thats how to do it. Provides entertainment in a rather gloomy station.,

[richard222]

We may enjoy it, but commuters may certainly not!

Wasn't there another incident where a line got closed around the birmingham area as a Voyager ate a pigeon and then gave it a nice toasting?

Richard

[chester025]

I hope there are no deaths.

Thankfully there hasn't been!

[chriscooper]

When it comes to fires, it's one area where you can't be too careful. Try telling those who lost relatives at Kings Cross that this was an over-reaction. The problem with fires is that something seemingly small can within a very short space of time get out of control, especially in a fairly enclosed space like an underground station (which for the purposes of fire safety, New Street is). It's not just the fire that is a problem either, but toxic smoke. Busy locations are a problem aswell, and it's often good to evacuate more than is needed to make it easier to get people out and emergency services in. It sounds really like it was handled well, evacuating the station, but quickly allowing people back to unaffected areas once the situation was known and under control.
It's important to remember that in these situations hesitation with evacuation or other emergency proceedures has cost countless lives in the past, and it's not just Health and Safety but simple ethics and common sence that commercial factors should never come into it. Now, if evacuation or other emergency proceedures carry risks of their own (for example evacuating a hospital, or even evacuating the train had it been away from a station), then it's a different matter, but in this case it would have been an almost purely commercial desision to delay (I say almost because no large scale evacuation is without risk). Had a desision turned out to be wrong, the person or people responsible would have probably been up for manslaughter aswell. The information the station controller probably recieved was that a train was on fire in the station, and in that case I would worry about anyone who wouldn't immediatly begin evacuation.