CTA service suspended after reports of smoke (Chicago)

[greatauntoftriplets]

CTA service suspended after reports of smoke

Josh Noel
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 11, 2006, 6:42 PM CDT

Passengers are being evacuated from a downtown Blue Line subway this afternoon after there were reports of heavy smoke in the tunnel, CTA officials said.

The smoke was noticed about 5:10 p.m. in the subway tunnel between the Grand and Clark stops, said CTA spokeswoman Wanda Taylor.

There were no reports of flames, and whether anyone is injured is unknown, she said. The cause of the smoke is also unknown.

The last two wheels on the last car of an eight-car train derailed, said Taylor. There was a fire, but she couldn't say how large.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-060711cta-smoke,0,3432936.story?coll=chi-newsbreaking-hed

[ovidsen]

1. And Faux flubs the facts

Shepard Smith was all over this story like a cheap suit... which is to say he covered it very poorly. He and his Chicago stringer (a guy who clearly never takes the El) dropped such zirconian gems as..

"Rain may have sparked a fire in the wheel that gets power for the train" (What? Setting aside your ignorance of the 3rd rail...)

"The fire occurred on the Blue line where it connects with the Purple, Brown and Red lines." (no, the Blue line runs all by itself, as does the Red Line... and the Purple & Brown lines share still another track)

"Heavy traffic on nearby I-90/94 is delaying emergency vehicles." (Hardly. The vehicles came from downtown, just to the east of the fire. The highway's the last place they'd come from. And it's the Kennedy Expressway, idiot. The stringer who called it I-90/94 obviously doesn't drive OR take the El.)

Now, I'm glad that it wasn't a terrorist attack, and that nobody was seriously hurt.

But if this is how Fox covers a minor subway mishap, can you imagine how much they can screw up a story with REAL significance?

[Rex]

3. What do you expect from Foxnews? They are a branch of the gummit.

The propaganda branch. What bothers me is where did the smoke come from? Yeah, Foxnews sucks ass! It scares me that people consider it a news station.

[madrchsod]

5. the trailing truck on the last car jumped the track,

came into contact with the third rail, and the sparks set the grease and wire on fire...

[YellowRubberDuckie]

2. Just got CNN Breaking news email...

A subway train in chicago has derailed.
Duckie

[madrchsod]

4. chicago media figures out happened immediately

the chicago investigators and response teams are on the spot minutes after it happens ,the while fox news is just dieing for the terrorist attack angle. ain`t chicago great!

[greatauntoftriplets]

6. NBC had a team out there very fast....

was reporting only that. The smoke down in the tunnel must have been unpleasant, and scary for anyone riding the train, given what happened today in Mumbai. Happily, I work in the suburbs and live in the suburbs so avoided all that scene.