The Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS) and Metro will temporarily close the Forest Glen Metro station Dec. 13 for a drill testing the ability of emergency personnel to rescue passengers on a train stranded in the Red Line Metro tunnel.
The training exercise will begin at 7 a.m. and run until about noon, according to a message posted on a local neighborhood listserv by Russell Blinkhorn, captain of MCFRS Silver Spring Fire Station No. 1. The station will be closed to all passengers during that time.
Firefighters from MCFRS, Montgomery County police officers and Metro employees will take part.
Metro is also looking for about 30 volunteers to play the parts of fake passengers stuck on the train. Those interested in volunteering can contact WMATA coordinator Bob Hester at bjhester[at]wmata[dot]com.
“Role players will be placed on a ‘mock’ stranded Metro train inside of the Metro tunnel. The firefighters will be tasked with safely evacuating all passengers on the train to the safety of the platform,” Blinkhorn wrote. “This is an excellent opportunity for anyone who rides the Metro to get a first-hand experience of fire department operations during a Metro emergency.”
Blinkhorn also said not to be alarmed by the fire and police activity at the station during the exercise.
In January, a Metro passenger died as a result of smoke inhalation while on a stranded train in the tunnel near the L’Enfant Plaza station in Washington, D.C. Initial reports pointed to an arcing insulator, which can occur when water or other material makes contact with the track’s electrified third rail, as the cause of the smoke.
In June, MCFRS Chief Scott Goldstein said there had been a 500 percent increase through the first six months of 2015 in the number of calls to the fire department for incidents at Metro stations in the county. Most of those calls were related to arcing insulators.
In August, Metro Transit Police, D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services and other agencies conducted a training exercise similar to what’s planned for Forest Glen in the tunnel near the Stadium-Armory Metro station in Washington, D.C.
