[from FB post: July 22, 2013]
There was a problem with a train at the Dupont Circle metro that caused it to smoke excessively. We all got off and had to cross the platform to catch the next train. There were a LOT of people. It was very smokey...and I can still taste that in my mouth over an hour later. FYI...if there were a real fire down there, the escalators are too small to accommodate a train full of people evacuating quickly. I would guess most people would be overcome by smoke inhalation before being able to exit. Not a happy thought, but unfortunately....real. I only had a small taste of it today, what if had been a real fire?? Those cars are mostly plastic and that would be noxious if on fire.
Rosyln Metro Station escalator. Arlington, VA. September 2016
Fire!
When I was a kid hanging out in the basement back in York, PA with childhood friend Joe Lukas, we heard this pop like a loud firecracker. The electrical box that held all the circuit breakers had exploded (literally). Luckily the flames went out on their own as we ran out of the basement to tell Dad. The worst part was that the breaker box was right at the door. Had it been worse, we would have been trapped and the house (made of wood) might have burnt down completely. Yikes! Years later, when Brian and I were renovating the Milford Museum House, the electrician said we should replace all the breaker boxes (the house was large and there were several panels). Before Brian could say a word, I said "Do it".
Then in high school after begging Mom and Dad for a weekend away (which was difficult financially AND because of the nature of Dad's work) we finally were off to Ocean City, MD for a weekend. Mom, Dad, and I were in one room and my brother and his first wife in the second. Suddenly we woke to "fire! fire!" There was already smoke in the room! Luckily, we were on the first floor of a two floor building with sliding glass doors directly onto the parking lot. People on the upper floors were freaking out because in their panic they couldn't open the sliding doors and threw furniture through them showering glass on all of us below. We were all in our bare feet! Somehow we did get out all our bags. A lot of the building burned, even though the fire brigade came quickly. News reporters were on the scene and my brother and I were on TV. I wasn't really afraid, but it was a shocking experience. Needless to say, we just drove back home - no one was in the mood for a vacation after that. I kept the hotel keys as a talisman for years after - strange what odd things we do after such events. (and, by the way, none of us cut our feet!)
Then there was the metro fire in DC during the time I was with DV and PM preparing the paperwork for my first job in the Middle East. There had been a fire, but it was mostly smoke. It was so acrid that it burned the inside of my nose and mouth. I was shocked at how calmly the authorities were handling the situation after about 100 people just breathed in toxic fumes. As I stated in my post, if a metro train, with all its plastic parts, ever really caught fire inside one of those deep stations like Dupont Circle or Roslyn, I wouldn't expect too many survivors. After that experience I came to understand how little prepared any system like metro is for true, catastrophic failure. Something small can be handled, but anything "medium to big", forget about it. A serious fire event deep in the DC metro wouldn't remotely be survivable.
Three fires in my life. They say "three's a charm". I hope that I have met my quota!