They say it was really nothing. Really. It happens about once a year. But somehow, some sort of "metallic debris" ended up on the BART tracks at Civic Center on September 16 and caused a dramatic, bright, orange arc of electricity to flash up from the third rail to the train's running rail up above, sending out a bunch of smoke into the BART station and triggering an evacuation. And now there's surveillance video.

BART just released the video above, and unfortunately you can't get a good glimpse of the flash, which you can only barely see in the upper right quadrant around the 10-second mark. BART officials say that the actual debris burned up in the flash, so they don't know exactly what it was, but the flash was essentially just a giant "spark" and caused only about $600 worth of damage. But, as you can see, it freaked everyone out, and many went running out of the station thinking there'd been a terrorist attack. Also, Civic Center Station was evacuated and shut down for about an hour, a week ago Sunday, starting at around 1:30 p.m.

[Chron]
[BCN/Appeal]