Crews extinguish small fire on BART tracks in Oakland

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A small fire on BART tracks in Oakland late Tuesday morning caused delays of up to 20 minutes for trains in the area, an agency spokesman said.

The fire was reported at about 11:20 a.m. on tracks between the 19th Street and MacArthur stations, BART spokesman Jim Allison said.

Crews responded and extinguished the fire within 20 minutes while rerouting trains to the other tracks in the area, Allison said.

The small blaze caused BART to take that track out of service for more than an hour. The track was brought back into service shortly before

12:45 p.m. and trains are resuming normal service early this afternoon, a dispatcher said.

The delays affected trains on the Pittsburg/Bay Point, Richmond-to-Fremont and Richmond-to-Daly City lines, Allison said. The cause of the fire was not immediately released.

The problem was the latest in a rough day for BART, which also had delays Tuesday morning because of wet weather and multiple medical emergencies.

At least four people fainted on various San Francisco-bound trains within an hour, prompting delays of up to 20 minutes, while the stormy weather caused trains to also run at slower speeds than usual, a dispatcher said.