Fire at San Leandro BART station damages equipment, suspends train service

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. (KGO) -- A fire reported on the BART train tracks just south of the San Leandro station early Tuesday morning is expected to affect service on the transit system into the late afternoon or evening hours.

UPDATE: BART's Green Line service down as impacts continue from fire at San Leandro station

Around 5:45 a.m., BART officials said on social media that service on the Blue, Green and Orange lines was suspended between the Lake Merritt, Berryessa and Dublin stations due to issues related to the fire near the San Leandro station.

The fire was reported around 5:10 a.m. It forced transit officials to close the San Leandro station around 5:20 a.m.

Officials said around 2:50 p.m., service is expected to be restored at 5:30 p.m.

Frustrated BART passengers pointed out that this was the second time in two weeks that BART was closed. Two weeks ago, it was due to a computer system malfunction.

"I love BART, but things like this happen with no notice. And it's kind of frustrating," says Shannon Lee, who lives in Dublin.

BART says the fire damaged cable and other train control equipment. They estimate it to take hours until Tuesday afternoon or evening for service to be restored as crews make repairs.

BART and Alameda County Fire said that a cause is still under investigation.

Power was also out for hours for businesses and homes near the BART station.

Video shot Tuesday morning by Mohamed Awnallah of San Leandro showed explosions of embers and flames coming from the top and underside of the BART train tracks that are risen above the ground. Small fires underneath the tracks could also be seen.

MORE: All BART service resumes after systemwide shutdown causes commuting nightmare

"I woke up to crazy explosions, and came out and saw literally more worse than fireworks. It was very intense that the radiation could be felt through the apartment," Awnallah said.

Awnallah said the explosions lasted for around 20 minutes.

"Was pretty scary. I didn't know what it was at first. When I first heard it, I thought it was a car driving with no tires," he said, "So I come out to these intense explosions that were coming out, and it was going on and off. So it was pretty scary. I didn't know what to expect, so I decided to just take out my phone and just get a video of what happened."

Alameda County fire officials also viewed the footage on scene, asking Awnallah to share it with them.

Following the fire, BART Spokesperson Chris Filippi said that the crews had been focused on repairing cables.

"The remaining damage that we need to address is the fiber optic cable and the train control cable. There was also an earlier problem with an electrical cable, but that's been addressed," he said.

This Tuesday fire comes after a computer system issue shut down the entire BART system earlier this month.

"At this point, there's no indication that those two events are connected, but nonetheless, we have to acknowledge it's a major impact on our riders. It's definitely not the level of service that we strive to provide," Filippi said.

Just before 11 a.m. Tuesday, Filippi said they expected service in the area to be restored in around 6 to 8 hours. He said once train service does re-start it may run at reduced speeds.

BART officials say it is still too early to tell what started the fire.

BART is adding extra cars to the red line. But otherwise, BART official says there is not the capacity to add any extra buses or extra trains to help with the evening the commute.

As of 5:20 p.m., BART says the orange line between Berryessa and Hayward is restored. The blue line between Bay Fair to Dublin is also running.

There is no estimated time for when San Leandro will reopen.

Commuters are advised to seek alternate forms of transportation.

Bay City News contributed to this story.