Car Fills With Smoke on MBTA's Red Line

Authorities say failure in train's propulsion system caused burst of smoke

There was a bit of a scare on a Boston MBTA Red Line train as it pulled into the Quincy Center station during rush hour Thursday morning.

Kerstin Sutter of Quincy explained, “All of a sudden there’s this really high pitched sound and everybody was looking around wondering what it was and then the second car just started smoking.”

While Sutter was alarmed watching from the packed platform, Kimberly Perkins of Abington didn't know what was going on from inside the second car.

Perkins said, “We had some people trying to pull the emergency handle in the car, also trying to hit the emergency button and no one was coming at all which was even more scary, we started screaming.”

Sutter said when the doors to the second car didn't automatically open she another others on the platform jumped into action.

“Every door in that car people were trying to pry open from the inside and the outside and eventually some guy said let’s just kick in the windows,” said Sutter.

Perkins was one of the passengers pulled to safety.

She said, “I’m really thankful that they stepped up and actually tried to do something because obviously no one else was.”

The people involved say they don’t think anyone was seriously injured, they just wish MBTA officials could have directed them with what to do.

“It didn't really seem like there was any kind of emergency procedure,” said Sutter. “There was a guy working at the MBTA in one of those little booths and he came out, unplugged something in the back of the train and then just kind of let people do whatever.”

“A failure in the train’s propulsion system resulted in a burst of smoke. There was no emergency,” MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo said. "Passengers were being offloaded when some people decided to kick the windows. Unclear why they did since there was no smoke inside the subway car. A Red Line official was seconds away from opening the doors.”

But witnesses refute that.

Sutter said, “I just don’t think they were really prepared for anything like this to happen.”

The incident comes just weeks after a Washington D.C. metro tunnel filled with smoke, leading to the death of one passenger and the hospitalizations of dozens more.

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