Early Thursday morning
June 14, 2012 around 2:15 a.m. a fire broke out, at
an under-construction senior center in a framing stage. The fire was
next to the West Oakland BART station between Fifth and Seventh
streets. Battalion Chief Adrian Sheppard said, “The fire spread to
include lampposts, cars, power poles, took down electrical wires and
spread to the elevated BART tracks, potentially damaging the tracks
and necessitating shutting down power to the tracks.” He also said
that “No one was injured and no homes or occupied buildings were
damaged in the blaze.” Bart official Jim Allison said “it is too
early to tell how long the Transbay Tube may be closed, and whether
it may be a matter of hours or even days.” He also said “that a
preliminary examination of the tracks suggests there may not be any
physical damage and that there is mainly an electrical problem,
however that estimate may change.” Bart officials said West Oakland
BART station is closed entirely and to find an alternate route. AC
Transit official Clarence Johnson says they have not added any
additional buses because they don’t have any. Transit officials
have changed the bus routes to accommodate BART riders.
Wow! This is the worst
time for a fire to break out and shut down the West Oakland Transbay
Terminal to San Francisco. BART has thousands of people that commute
on a daily basis. With the U.S. open going on in San Francisco the
riders on BART have probably doubled. The traffic on highway 880
north bound trying to get into Oakland from Union City, Fremont and
Hayward has been a nightmare. Streetwise Courier Service was supposed
to pick up for their client today in Oakland and deliver to Fremont.
It was canceled due to the traffic situation on 880 north bound. The
traffic situation on 80 west bound coming from San Pablo and Richmond
going into Berkeley and Emeryville is bad as well. People are panicky
and causing accidents adding to the problem. It is a good thing no
one was hurt in this fire. It may be a little inconvenient for a
while. Slow down people it’s not that serious.
LM
