A BRAKE FIRE ON A GERMAN RAILWAY CAR FILLED THE passenger cabin with a noxious gas Saturday evening. The Regional Express local train operated by Deutsche Bahn came to a halt in Frechen station on the outskirts of Cologne after the fire developed in one of the brakes.
The train operator called in the alarm and the first on the scene was a car of four Rail Transport Police who used portable fire extinguishers to put the fire out. However, the burning brake system generated an irritating, noxious smoke that started affecting the passengers along with the four policemen. It was determined that the car’s air conditioner intake had pulled the smoke into the interior.
Adding to the problem was the inability of the train driver to open the doors of the sealed passenger car that was filling up with the smoke and the 90 passengers in it started panicking and trying to break their way out of the railcar. The trains cannot open their doors on stretches of high-speed trackage until all rail traffic in that zone is brought to a halt. Presumably the Deutsche Bahn does not want passengers standing on the tracks when an express liner suddenly appears at 210 mph. (Firegeezer wonders why it’s preferable to keep them inside where they can all die instead of outside where only some of them may get killed.)
The responding fire and ambulance crews were faced with 90 victims suffering from various degrees of respiratory distress in addition to the extreme stress of the ensuing panic. Eventually 18 people, including the four policemen, had to be transported to the hospital. The passengers in the other railcars were unaffected by the smoke.
Spiegel has the STORY.
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