Moment terrified passengers escape Boston train that caught fire while on a bridge as some are forced to scramble out of WINDOWS and one jumps into water below
- A Massachusetts train with 200 passengers caught fire outside of Boston on Thursday morning
- Passengers were traveling between Somerville and Medford when the blaze broke out at the front of the train
- Some passengers quickly rushed out of windows while others used other exits to flee the smoke and flames
- One unidentified woman jumped off the bridge the train was stopped at and into the Mystic River
A train right outside of Boston caught on fire on Thursday morning, causing distressed passengers to escape through windows, with one jumping into a river.
The fire broke out for early morning commuters around 6:45 a.m. on an Orange Line train heading toward Assembly Station in Somerville, Mass. The train halted on a bridge over the Mystic River when the flames exploded from the head car.
‘Assisted by MBTA personnel, approximately 200 passengers were walked off the train, but some people did evacuate through windows in the first car,’ Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority spokesperson Joe Pesaturo said, according to The Boston Globe.
Passengers documented the incident as multiple people leaped out of the windows and onto the train tracks.
‘Ladies, ladies,’ one man is heard saying in the background of a video, as multiple people shove to get out of the window at once.
A woman responded, ‘I’m scared.’
One woman jumped into the river below the train when the flames broke out. A local fire department which happened to be in the area at the time attempted to assist the unidentified woman, but she denied help
Passengers were quick to jump out of a burning train that caught fire in Massachusetts. The fire broke out before 7 a.m. on Thursday while 200 passengers were onboard
Passengers anxiously waited to exit the fiery train through the emergency exits as others escaped through windows
Additional footage showed passengers lined up to exit through a train door as others safely queued up outside. One passenger was picked up by public safety personnel after she jumped into the water from the burning train.
Personnel who arrived at the scene to assist passengers watched the shocking scene unfold as passengers evacuated.
‘201 to control. I can see Medford Fire at the station. We’re almost done evacuating,’ a personnel supervisor said, according to The Globe.
‘I have somebody jumping off the bridge into the water, actually, as we speak,’ the supervisor said.
Somerville Fire Chief Charles Breen told The Globe that the fire department’s boat was coincidentally in the river at the time of the incident and saw the woman swimming.
‘The woman refused to get into the boat,’ he said. ‘She was provided a life jacket and proceeded to swim to shore… then she walked away.’
A resident who lives nearby watch the incident unfold through the window of his home.
‘I was looking out and was like, “What the hell is going out there?”‘ William Tauro told The Globe. ‘I’m looking out there and looking back to the TV and I’m seeing the same shot there that I’m seeing out the window.’
The fire was put out and transferred to a rail yard to investigate the cause. No injuries were reported.
The Thursday incident comes nearly a month after an Amtrak train derailed in Missouri, killing three and injuring 50.
Missouri officials have declared a ‘large fatality event’ after an Amtrak train collided with a dump truck at a public railroad crossing and overturned
The train collided with a dump truck causing the horrific scene as passengers were thrown over when the train fell on its side.
Passengers included 16 youths and eight adults from two Boy Scout troops who were traveling home to Appleton, Wisconsin, after a backcountry excursion at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.
The scouts immediately responded by helping survivors exit as emergency personnel arrived at the scene.
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