San Leandro BART fire halts service at 12 stations south of Lake Merritt

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. - A fire at the BART station in San Leandro stopped service on Tuesday morning, sending sparks flying and stopping train service for a large swath of riders – the second major BART issue this month. 

The fire was reported at about 5 a.m. on the elevated tracks and caused the San Leandro station to close, according to BART spokesman Chris Fillippi.

Service stopped on the orange, green and blue lines between Berryessa in San Jose and Lake Merritt in Oakland, the agency said.

All12 stations, south of Oakland's Lake Merritt station, were closed due to the fire. The cause of the fire is not yet known. 

KTVU cameras spotted a fire up on the tracks about 6 a.m. and smoking grass below, apparently started when sparks dropped from above. 

Viewers took cell phone video of the fire, which sounded like mini explosions. 

Filippi said BART officials didn't know what caused the fire. 

"Tuesdays through Wednesdays are our busiest days of the week. We know a lot of people were impacted. BART service is typically reliable," Fillippi said.

Earlier in the day, officials estimated it could take as long as 5 p.m. for full service restoration. Crews have to replace 500-feet of fiber optic and 700-feet of train control. 

At 3:30 p.m., the transit agency said it was still completing fiber repairs needed to restore service. 

By 5:30 p.m. BART officials posted on social media saying limited service was restored between Dublin and Bay Fair stations. 

Just before 7 p.m., BART posted that they were recovering from an earlier problem and that there was a major delay in the Antioch and Richmond directions. 

At around 10 p.m. BART posted to social media that service would be restored to all 50 stations on Wednesday with trains once again running between Lake Merritt, Berryessa/North San Jose, and Dublin/Pleasanton stations. They added that trains will be running at reduced speeds between Bay Fair and Coliseum stations. 

Rider impact

Local perspective:

Tuesday's fire left passengers scrambling.

One rider, Kate, was trying to hop on BART in San Jose.

"It's really frustrating. It leaves a lot of people stuck, as you can see," she said.

Others were seen walking around the Berryessa station, trying to figure out what to do. 

Another rider, Mame Lo said she can work at home, if necessary.

 "I'm one of the lucky ones. I guess if you have an office job and strict hours, it could be more complicated," she said.

Others were not so lucky. 

 "I'm essentially stuck unless I want to pay for like a $100 Uber back to Oakland," another rider said.

The Alameda County Fire Department was called to the scene Tuesday morning but couldn't immediately put out the fire as they had to make sure the electricity on the tracks was fully turned off. 

Battalion Chief Brandon Buckley said fire crews closed the station to keep people out, and no one was injured by the flames.

"It's pretty unusual," he said. "But it's something we train for." 

Last week's computer networking issue

Last week, BART had a major meltdown when its computer networking system went dark for about four hours. 

In that case, BART officials said the staff at the control center could not see the circuit board, which shows the track circuits.

And without that visibility, officials said, the agency wouldn't run the trains.

Eventually, crews were able to do a hard reset, officials said, and the devices started to come back up.

KTVU's Jesse Gary, Tom Vacar and Sal Castaneda contributed to this report. 

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