For about 90 minutes yesterday (Thursday), thick black smoke rose above the National Mall, midway between the White House and the U.S. Capitol. Underneath the Mall in the 9th Street Tunnel, a hybrid diesel Metrobus burned. Except for the driver, the bus was empty around 6:30 p.m. when the fire broke out. No one, including drivers and passengers in other vehicles in the tunnel, was injured. As a precaution, Metro is temporarily grounding about 30 buses of the same make and model.
According to DC Fire & EMS Department Chief John Donnelly, firefighters worked to get water and foam to the burning bus located about 900 feet into the tunnel. The tunnel carries southbound traffic from Downtown DC to I-395.
Dispatch problems
About 12 minutes after the dispatch of the original call, 9th Street Command asked for a foam unit task force to be dispatched. That dispatch didn’t happen fast enough for the Fire Operations Center. Almost four minutes after the request, one of the fire officers assigned to the FOC reminded a dispatcher at the Office of Unified Communications of the foam unit task force request. Shortly after that reminder, the task force was dispatched.
It’s clear from the first six or seven minutes of radio traffic supplied by OpenMHz.com that things did not go smoothly at OUC during this fire. The dispatcher on Channel 2 said multiple times she was having problems with her computer when trying to enter the various requests for additional units. Channel 2 is the main communications talk group between the incident commander and OUC.
At one point, the dispatcher apologized on the radio to the Special Operations Chief, saying, “There are a lot of moving parts. I apologize for any (unintelligible) delays. I’ve been having problems with my computer.” Despite this problem, there is no indication the delays significantly impacted how the fire was handled.
Puzzling dispatch
Twenty minutes into the incident, OUC dispatched 3 engines, a ladder truck, and a chief to 700 L’Enfant Plaza SW for a possible building fire at the Spy Museum. L’Enfant Plaza, which also contains the headquarters for the National Transportation Safety Board and the U.S. Postal Service, sits directly above the tunnel. It’s unclear why that assignment was dispatched. Once again, FOC stepped in and canceled the dispatch.
OUC has a long history of problems that STATter911 has chronicled.
Tunnel damage
According to DC Fire & EMS, 41 units were dispatched with approximately 125 personnel. The fire was extinguished around 8:00 p.m.
Pictures show a significant portion of the outer covering from the tunnel’s ceiling in pieces in the roadway. It’s unclear when a thorough structural inspection will be completed.
No announcement has been made on when the tunnel might reopen. As of 4:00 a.m. today (Friday), DC Department of Transportation trucks continued to block the main entrance to the tunnel at 9th Street and Constitution Avenue NW.
