The Civic Center BART station was closed as of around 11:30 am Tuesday due to what BART called an "equipment problem on the track," and train delays were developing on all lines as a result.
A scary smoke situation occurred at the Civic Center BART station Tuesday morning, likely caused by a problem similar to one that created smoke in tunnels earlier this year, with BART announcing an equipment problem that was prompting a full station closure as of 11:34 am.
KRON4 subsequently reported that the San Francisco Fire Department was investigating a possible explosion at the station, apparently on the track.
A BART spokesperson subsequently explained in a media announcement that the trouble was "due to an equipment problem on the trackway, specifically an insulator that was blown and caused a lot of smoke to accumulate inside the station."
No injuries were reported from the incident.
Video from the Citizen app shows the sheer amount of smoke escaping the station at Civic Center after the incident.
BART announced that Civic Center Station had reopened as of 12:26 pm, but the blown insulator on one of the tracks meant that trains were single-tracking between Montgomery and 24th Street stations — leading to systemwide delays. And there was no service at all on BART's Red or Green lines.
This incident follows a couple of high-profile recent incidents involving smoke in BART tunnels that was allegedly the result of exploding insulator caps caused by the electrified third rail making contact with collections of iron dust from the tracks — dust that previously was routinely cleaned, but hasn't been in five years.
On October 7, smoke filled Embarcadero Station in an incident similar to this one. And on August 29, train passengers became trapped in a smoke-filling train in the Transbay Tube after an incident blamed on an exploded insulator cap. That incident led to the Tube being closed for hours on a busy Friday night.
A retired BART engineer explained to NBC Bay Area two weeks ago that all these incidents are likely being caused by iron dust — left from several years of train wheels grinding on tracks — collecting on or around these insulator caps, leading to electrical arcing, "flashovers" and small explosions. BART stopped cleaning these caps regularly in 2020, with the idea that the cleaning process was leading to faster degradation of the equipment. But reportedly, the insulator caps in indoor and tunnel areas that don't see any rain or wind are most prone to collecting iron dust.
This is a developing story.
Related: Iron Dust, Which BART Says It Stopped Cleaning In 2020, Likely to Blame For Smoke Incident In August
