An Amtrak train caught fire in Milwaukee, US, on Thursday, causing immediate evacuation of passengers on board.
The six-compartment passenger train, which was headed to Milwaukee from Chicago, was carrying 51 passengers and stopped in the area of E Walker and S Barclay streets.
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According to reports, no-one was killed or even injured and all passengers were safely evacuated from the train. Canadian Pacific Rail Road, whose tracks are used by Amtrak, was the first to report the incident to firefighters.
Milwaukee Fire Department deputy chief Brian Smith said the train’s engineer noticed smoke in the train’s engine.
Smith said: "When he noticed it, he immediately stopped the train and then began to maybe take a look to do some self-extinguishment.
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"And once he realised that was not the case, he got off and got everyone off the train.
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By GlobalData"We dispatched an engine and a ladder truck. Once they got on scene, they found a fire on the top of a locomotive engine. They immediately began extinguishing it.
"Once they began extinguishing it, they realised that the incident was bigger than they thought."
According to the engineer, approximately 5,000gal of diesel fuel was on-board the train at the time of incident. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Once the passengers were safely evacuated and the fire was extinguished, the train moved from the location and the damage is estimated at $500,000.
The fire incident comes just less than two days after an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia, which killed eight people and injuring more than 200 others.
The derailed Northeast Regional Train 188 included 238 passengers and five crew members.
According to officials, the engine and all seven cars of the train went off the track near a sharp curve in a section of the corridor known as Frankford Junction.
According to US National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt, the train gained ‘more than double the speed limit as it approached the curve where it derailed.’
