Firefighters were at Glencairn railway station on Monday 7 October to tackle a train that caught alight.
Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson, Jermaine Carelse said the train at the station, between Fish Hoek and Simon’s Town, suffered severe damage to its motorised locomotive and two carriages.
Another carriage was slightly damaged by the fire. No injuries were reported.
Carelse said the fire was extinguished at 16:05. Metrorail confirmed in a statement that the train, which had been travelling from Simon’s Town to Cape Town, caught alight at around 13:30. It is unclear what started the fire. Besides firefighters, the police and Metrorail’s technical, operations and security teams were on the scene.
The fire affected all inbound and outbound Simon’s Town trains. They were forced to terminate at Fish Hoek station.
Metrorail started mop-up operations after the train had been moved to the depot, where officials conducted safety tests to assess for possible damage to infrastructure. Railway services reopened at 20:45 on the same day, being declared safe. Police are investigating a case of malicious damage to property. – Jenna Etheridge (News24)
