Firefighters have been receiving a lot more calls related to Bethesda-area Metro stations this year.
Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said Tuesday there has been a 500 percent increase in the number of calls for service in the first six months of this year compared to previous years. Goldstein revealed the rising call numbers during the National Transportation Safety Board’s hearings about the January smoke incident at the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station that left one person dead and more than 80 people injured.
Goldstein said most of the calls have been related to smoke incidents arising from either arcing insulators or brakes. He said the fire department has received 51 calls in the first six months of this year compared to 22 calls during all of 2014. Eighteen of this year’s calls were related to the Bethesda Metro station and another 10 stemmed from problems at the Medical Center station.
Last week, fire department spokesman Pete Piringer said the fire department responded to 15 reports of arcing incidents at the Bethesda or Medical Center station this month.
Metro is scheduled to make repairs to the Red Line’s Bethesda tunnel next year to fix cracks that are allowing water to seep through, which may be leading to the arcing incidents. Arcing insulators typically happen when water or debris touches the electrified third rail and causes smoke.
That $12.2 million repair project can’t be fast-tracked because it requires engineering studies and prefabricated materials—such as a precast concrete—before it can begin, according to a Metro spokesperson.
