Metro Cars Get Kevlar After Silver Spring Fire

Metro says that it knows what caused the explosions and fire at the Silver Spring Metro station in May, and it has a solution: Protective Kevlar coverings on the rail cars.

So, what exactly happened to create the explosions and fire?

Metro officials said last week that the cleat for a hydraulic hose broke off, causing the hose to fall onto a power cable, The Washington Post reported.

And why fix this with a fiber commonly used in bulletproof vests?

The protective covering between the hydraulic hose and the power cable was what wore down and caused the problems, The Washington Examiner reported. Metro hopes that putting Kevlar on the protective sheaths will prevent this kind of breakdown in the future.

No passengers were injured in the explosions because they had been off-loaded at Takoma, one stop before Silver Spring on the Red Line, Patch reported in May. Metro off-loaded passengers because a passenger at Takoma had reported seeing smoke coming from one of the cars, according to a June 13 report from Metro.

When Metro mechanics inspected all of the 1000 series rail cars after the incident, they found "less than a dozen" with problems, The Examiner reported.

Read more at The Post and The Examiner.

Read more on Silver Spring Patch:

Track Fire Leads to Evacuation of Silver Spring Metro Station