BART electrical room fire caused by aging gap breaker station slated to be replaced, agency says
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Crews at Oakland's 12th Street BART station are making repairs to make sure history doesn't repeat itself.
A fire in an electrical room forced four Oakland BART stations to close over the weekend, prompting the evacuation of about 300 riders.
"There's been some pretty bad delays," said Margaret Layman, a Berkeley resident.
Layman says she experienced delays taking BART every day this week through Wednesday.
"Then there's delays in the afternoon when you're going back, and then the trains really get uncomfortably crowded," she said.
RELATED: BART stations reopen in Oakland after electrical room fire as confusion, delays linger
BART said service had been fully restored by Tuesday but says it was running trains slower on Wednesday out of an abundance of caution.
"So people might notice that their trains are slowing down. That was just to not overstrain our electrical system," said Anna Duckworth, a BART spokesperson.
BART Board Director Debora Allen says this has brought to light a much larger issue.
"When we have a fire like this, it brings to mind for me that we are not working fast enough. BART is not working fast enough on the replacement of these critical components," Allen said.
BART says the issue happened at a 56-year-old gap breaker station.
RELATED: Electrical room fire at Oakland BART station prompts train evacuations, major delays, officials say
Of the 47 gap breaker stations system-wide, they say, this was one of 17 on a list slated to be replaced.
"We don't know if age contributed to the cause of the fire, but that's something we're looking into," Duckworth said.
Though, they say the actual construction for that was still a few years out.
"I just find it very disconcerting," Layman said. "It does seem to me, one of those things, that it should have been taken care of urgently if it were a potential fire danger."
While BART officials assure us their system is safe and they have a temporary workaround for the damaged gap breaker station, Allen is encouraging riders to plan ahead during this time.
"If they're using BART, they need to allow an extra 20 to 30 minutes for delays. That's what my advice is to riders," Allen said.
