BART officials are revising their explanation of why a fire broke out on the tracks of the San Leandro station and affected service for days, and the problem is apparently a “systemwide” issue that could come up again at any of the 50 BART stations.
When a fire broke out on the BART tracks near the San Leandro station the morning of Tuesday, May 20, it made service a little haywire not just that day, but for several days afterward. And very appropriately, BART engineers have been on the case to determine why the fire happened, and what they can do to make sure there are no similar incidents in the future.
The initial explanation was that a frayed volt cable caused the spark that led to the fire, and an old 20,000-amp circuit breaker they’d been using for decades failed to cut off power quickly enough to prevent the fire from spreading.
Latest on BART San Leandro station fire -- BART evaluates potential systemwide vulnerabilities https://t.co/h6SWejjQPB
— Jaxon Van Derbeken (@jvanderbeken) June 12, 2025
But a new NBC Bay Area report says that BART engineers have since revised that explanation, and found that the electrical fire in question "exposed potential systemwide vulnerabilities." Engineers now conclude that the aging 20,000-amp circuit breaker was not at fault, and that the frayed volt cable was largely responsible for the fire. That raises concerns that similar fires could happen anywhere on the BART system, and officials are examining how to prevent power from continuing to flow in emergency or fire situations like the one we saw on May 20.
“We take this event very seriously, this is a review that we want to make sure is thorough, so we cover all the bases,” BART spokesperson Chris Filippi told NBC Bay Area. “We’re looking at several things – including components for power systems, communication cables, conduits, and that effort is in progress right now.”
And honestly, we should acknowledge that this is hardly a coverup. BART is being extremely transparent about their investigation into the fire and what went wrong. Their initial assessment was flawed, and they’re being completely up front about what they found after further review.
BART deputy general manager Michael Jones said in a Wednesday letter to the BART board that engineers were busy exploring ways to “enhance electrical fault detection and isolation,” and how they can upgrade alarm systems “to ensure reliability of future event detection."
Related: Fire at San Leandro Station Disables Some BART Service [SFist]
Image: Rick P via Yelp
