The entire Washington D.C. Metrorail system was closed for 24 hours on March 16th to allow emergency inspection of cables, following an electrical fire two days earlier which filled a tunnel with smoke. This was the second electrical cable fire in a week. Just over a year ago, a Washington D.C. Metrorail fatal fire started in malfunctioning cables (pinfa Newsletter n° 49).
Following this fire, inspections had been carried out and 125 cables replaced. The shutdown, with the objective of ensuring public safety, is reported to result from concern that the previous inspections had not been adequate. PIN flame retardants are a key component in reliable, fire-safe electrical cables, and in particular, can ensure low smoke emissions and low smoke corrosivity in case of fire or of over-heating or electrical failure.
“Transportation: Questions on cables’ safety demand 24-hour Metro shutdown”, Washington Post, 15th March 2016 https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/2016/03/15/8e0b2be4-eae8-11e5-b0fd-073d5930a7b7_story.html