BART stations reopen in Oakland after electrical room fire as confusion, delays linger
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- BART is still recovering after a wild weekend of power failures and station closures. Four BART stations in Oakland were forced to close Saturday night after a fire in an electrical room. The fire prompted the evacuation of passengers from trains.
All four Oakland BART stations impacted by the outage and electrical room fire have reopened, the transit agency said.
BART said the 12th St./Oakland and 19th St./Oakland BART stations reopened just after 11 a.m. The Fruitvale and Lake Merritt stations reopened around 10 a.m.
Angela Brennan said this wasn't the way she wanted to spend her Sunday on BART.
PREVIOUS STORY: Electrical room fire at Oakland BART station prompts train evacuations, major delays, officials say
"I feel so angry, how could this happen," Brennan said. "I came from Antioch. I'm trying to get to San Francisco. I can't get there because the trains are down. It cost me an appointment I made months ago," Brennan said.
Even Brennan's little dog seemed upset.
BART said weekend systemwide delays were caused by an electrical fire Saturday night near the Oakland 12th street station. Smoke could be seen billowing out onto the streets.
"The fire burned through some wires and cables and essentially cut power to the core of our Oakland system," said Anna Duckworth, BART spokesperson.
About 300 passengers were stuck inside two train cars for about 30 minutes. They had to be evacuated through a smoky tunnel between the 12th and 19th Street stations.
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"Thankfully, the ventilation system worked as it was supposed to, getting smoke out of the area, and we were able to evacuate all the riders safely, no injuries," Duckworth said.
"It was a bit scary, just because we didn't know what was going on, but after they evacuated us, we were fine," said BART train evacuee Breanna Miller.
Four BART stations in Oakland lost power and had to close Saturday. Bus bridges took riders around closures.
Even after stations reopened there were still train delays well into the afternoon.
The red line was out of service Sunday between Richmond and San Francisco. Passengers needed to transfer in Oakland.
MORE: East Bay BART service suspended on Red Line due to equipment problem, officials say
"Today I'm trying to get to Hayward. It's been a bit of a nightmare, mostly getting out of West Oakland," said Bryan Pomba.
BART said it doesn't know yet what caused the electrical fire. It said the suspected cause is a blown breaker causing an electrical short impacting the tracks.
"We're going to do a thorough investigation. What exactly caused the fire, we don't know if it was aging equipment, but we are constantly updating our equipment," Duckworth said.
BART expects service to be fully restored for the Monday morning commute.
