MANILA, Philippines — Heavy smoke rose from the LRT-2 line after a power rectifier tripped and caught fire in-between stations on Thursday.
In a Facebook video by Melvin Mamitag, thick smoke was seen curling out of a portion between LRT-2’s Katipunan and Anonas stations. Minutes later, a large blaze accompanied by flashes of electrical sparks erupted.
Mamitag told INQUIRER.net in an online exchange that due to the fire, a security guard of a bakeshop nearby had to cut the power of the shop as a precaution.
“[N]agpanic na rin po kami after dumaan ng tren nag-spark ung ilalim then nagsunod sunod na ang spark hanggang sa lumaki na siya [bilang sunog],” Mamitag said.
(We panicked right after the train sparked below it, the spark then went on continuously then it developed into a fire.)
Firefighters quickly responded to the scene to extinguish the blaze, he said.
The fire was later contained as of 12:31 p.m., according to a tweet posted by the LRT-2.
UPDATE: The fire that was seen along the carriageway between Anonas & Katipunan stations was caused by the tripping off of Rectifier Substation (RSS) 5 located at Katipunan station.
As of writing, the cause of this incident is still being investigated upon.
— LRT2 (@OfficialLRTA) October 3, 2019
According to LRT-2 management, operators were still investigating how the fire started. The fire led to the temporary suspension of train operations./ac
READ: LRT-2 suspends operations as power rectifier trips, catches fire