February 13, 2008
Fire at Filene's
Even though the day was so soggy that Wollaston Station flooded for a brief time, a fire broke out in the old Filene's Basement that is above the Downtown Crossing T stop. The fire broke out at 7:00 pm, 50 people were evacuated, and the Downtown Crossing T stop was shut down for 2 hours, between about 7:00 and 9:00.
A spokesman for the fire department told the Globe: "Pipe insulation and other materials caught fire in one of the buildings's sub-basements."
The fire wasn't the only problem. Eighteen firefighters and five others had to be decontaminated because of asbestos in the building.
Were you downtown or on the T at the time the incident took place?
Bostonist Rick was on the scene and describes it as loud: "It was pretty surreal -- a fire alarm going off for hours with all the passengers going about their normal business....I should note that none of the passengers in my vicinity had any idea about the source of the fire." See the comments for more.
Bostonist's standard photo of a Filene's sign. Rick Sawyer contributed to this post. If you would like to share a picture, upload it to Flickr and tag it with "Bostonist."
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it should be noted that, while the station may have been closed, passengers were still connecting between Orange and Red line platforms unimpeded, despite the ear-blisteringly loud fire alarm. there was no smoke or evidence of fire, at least around 8:30pm and at least between the Braintree/Ashmont bound Red line platform and the Forest Hills bound Orange line platform. Nor were any T personnel in evidence.