Blaze makes catwalks necessary on new monorail, fire marshal says

By Mike Lindblom
Seattle Times staff reporter

STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Monorail engineer Constantin Ghita looks into the charred "Blue Train," where Monday's fire, caused by a spark in the power-supply system to the motors, left 150 people stranded. It was the first fire on the monorail since service began for the 1962 World's Fair.

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Related stories Mother describes escape from monorail Archive: Coverage of 2002 monorail stalls and walkway issue Other links Seattle Monorail Project statement on Green Line safety features The Monorail Society remarks on the fire Photos from the scene

These steel-mesh platforms attached to the tracks would allow passengers to quickly get away from a fire or other emergency — instead of being stranded in the air, as they were in the Memorial Day fire on the Seattle Center Monorail.

Fire Marshal John Nelsen has advocated the walkways for two years. But monorail officials were trying to leave open other possibilities such as rescue trains or some other less obtrusive and less expensive solution.

"I think walkways are a done deal. This incident solidifies the argument," Nelsen said yesterday.

Joel Horn, executive director of the Seattle Monorail Project, acknowledged that while the agency has been allowing bidders to propose alternatives, "the fire marshal gets the final say."

The fire, caused by a spark in the power-supply system to the motors, left 150 people stranded on a southbound train near the Experience Music Project. It was the first fire on the monorail since service began for the 1962 World's Fair.

Both existing monorail trains, which run between Westlake Center and Seattle Center, are out of service indefinitely.

Investigators say they think the blaze resulted from a spark where an electrified power rail comes in contact with a piece of carbon, the anode block, which conducts electricity to the driver motors. Fire spread upward through a wire and around the motor, Nelsen said.

While smoke spread from the rear, passengers sought refuge in the front. A driver pulled emergency handles to open the doors, allowing in air. One woman leaned outside for breath, hanging onto the train with one hand and her young daughter with the other.

Within five minutes, fire-department ladders and a second train began evacuating riders. Eight people required hospital treatment for smoke inhalation; all were released Monday night.

Safety risks
 
Emergency walkways would have enabled them to leave the train instead of gasping for air until rescuers arrived.

The new Las Vegas Monorail has walkways along its entire four-mile length. Japanese monorails don't use them, but officials say there has never been a fire or injury accident there in four decades of service.

In Seattle, Nelsen said walkways would relieve a number of safety risks along the proposed Green Line:

• Single-tracking: Four miles of the proposed 14-mile route from Ballard to West Seattle might have only one track, shared by the northbound and southbound trains. This idea raised questions about how to rescue people from a stalled train, because it would be impossible to pull another train alongside it. Some types of trains can pull up nose-to-tail and empty passengers into a rescue train, but people would move single file, a response Nelsen considers too slow compared with a walkway.

• High elevations: Tracks in some locations, such as the Seattle Center, would be 60 feet high, which would stretch the limits of fire-department ladders, Nelsen said. • Proximity to buildings: In some blocks, a stalled train might pass within 5 feet of a high-rise, according to monorail-agency proposals. Rescue equipment would have a hard time squeezing in, but a walkway reduces the need for it, he said.

Nelsen was unimpressed with other ideas that have surfaced, such as inflatable chutes like those on airplanes, or a rope-descent system. Even a rescue train might take too long to arrive, he said.

But walkways are expensive.

When Seattle monorail planners were preparing their $1.75 billion proposal in 2002, they estimated walkways would cost $14 million.

They initially tried to convince fire officials that walkways were unnecessary. The current request for bids, issued to a pair of competing construction teams, does not make catwalks mandatory.

The agency now shows them in its drawings. But bidders are allowed to submit other ideas. Besides the additional cost, walkways make the overall elevated system loom larger over city sidewalks and streets.

In an April e-mail exchange, Ethan Melone, the Seattle Department of Transportation program manager for the Green Line, mentions that "if there is an acceptable alternative, eliminating the walkway would reduce column size, and reduce view and shadow impacts, so this is huge."

However, he also points out that any system must still meet national standards and satisfy the fire marshal.

Nelsen responded by mentioning a downtown blaze where ladder crews rescued residents in March.

"We saw in the recent fire at the Jensonia Apartments that people were prepared to face death by jumping from six stories rather than burn. The passengers of a new transit system should not have to face that decision," he said.

Melone said yesterday that "at this point, we're assuming a walkway is required."

Other train to be examined

Seattle Center spokesman Perry Cooper said independent engineers, as well as the fire department will investigate the fire. Then the other train will be examined, to ensure the same problem won't be repeated, he said.

The charred "Blue Train," named for its sky-colored trim, reached 1 million miles in February. But Glenn Barney, general manager of Seattle Monorail Services, a private company that operates the train, said nearly every part has been refurbished in the past five years. The drive trains are inspected monthly, he said, so he doubts age is a factor.

Nelsen said there is a potential for a similar kind of fire to break out in the new monorail. The difference, he said, is that "the rest of the vehicle would be designed to limit the spread and the fire growth."

Emergency escapes have emerged as a competitive issue between the two potential bid teams, one headed by Japanese-based Hitachi and the other by Canadian-based Bombardier. Bombardier's Las Vegas trains are compartmentalized so people cannot move between cars. That isolates the fire but also confines riders. Bombardier's group in Seattle thinks walkways would solve the problem and should be required, said Tom Stone, an executive organizing the bid.

Hitachi has been promoting its walk-through train design, which would allow people to move as they did Monday, away from flames. Japanese trains have never required an evacuation, according to Six Silva, project sponsor for the Hitachi-affiliated team in Seattle.

He said walkways pose a significant cost, but they aren't so expensive that they would prevent his team from bidding on the Green Line in August.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com