NTSB publishes a preliminary report on Septa Zugfeuer

Washington – The coach of the traffic authority of the southeast of Pennsylvania, which caught fire on February 6, 2025, was previously inspected by the sluggish performance, as the preliminary report of the National Transportation Safety Board on the incident published today (March 5, 2025).

About 325 passengers and four crew members were surely evacuated from the six-auto-electro-multiple unit train after his main car shortly before 6 p.m. [see “Fire engulfs SEPTA railcar …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 6, 2025]. Nobody was injured, but the fire caused by the fire.

The engineer, who was the train at around 3:50 p.m., reported difficulties to get the train up to date, and said that a fallen light was switched on. A mechanical team inspected the train and reported around 4:31 p.m. in the Septa control center that three cars were “bad”, but the train remained on duty.

After a crew had changed shortly before 5 p.m., while the train was still at the 30th Street train station, the new engineer reported a strong burning smell in the rail car, but the train continued to work. When the train later left Crum Lynne, the engineer Rauch looked behind the leading car, stopped the train and reported when he stood from the train station's train station, and reported that the car was completed at 6:22 p.m. with the fire extinguisher at 8:09 a.m.

The report indicates that the ongoing investigation will concentrate on the identification of the source of the fire. Inspect the cables of the iron cars; Evaluation of the septa inspection, maintenance and repair processes; And take into account the reaction of the Regional Rail Operations Control Center to Entroute train failures.