Santiago Metro's Line 5 is operating this Thursday with partial service between Plaza de Maipú and Ñuble stations following a fire on the tracks. Service between Rodrigo de Araya and Vicente Valdés was suspended, including the connection to Line 4.
According to Cooperativa, the Santiago Fire Department provisionally indicated that the incident originated from an electrical fault. This caused a bright flash, presumably an electrical arc, near the wheels of one of the trains.
Police provided a complementary account, reporting a fault in the train's wheels that caused sparks as it moved. The firefighters' preliminary report, cited by BioBioChile, described a fire on the tracks caused by a short circuit in the Rodrigo de Araya area.
Metro announced the service restriction on its social media accounts at 20:12. Four fire companies arrived at the scene, including units from Ñuñoa and Metropolitano Sur, and coordinated the evacuation of passengers. No injuries have been reported so far.
Some passengers described what they experienced inside the train. Ignacio, a Radio Bío Bío listener, said he got off the carriage at Rodrigo de Araya after hearing an explosion. He described "lots of sparks and lots of smoke" and said they feared the carriage would explode.
Videos of an apparent explosion in one of the carriages circulated on X. User @jmunoztarraf wrote that there was an explosion while the train was moving and a lot of smoke inside the carriage between Ñuble and Rodrigo de Araya.
Metro has not announced an estimated time for restoring full service. It has also not detailed alternative transport options for passengers heading toward the suspended section, which extends to Vicente Valdés in La Florida.
