Iron Dust, Which BART Says It Stopped Cleaning In 2020, Likely to Blame For Smoke Incident In August

The article was originally published on https://sfist.com/2025/11/14/iron-dust-which-bart-says-it-stopped-cleaning-in-2020-likely-to-blame-for-electrical-fire-in-august/Dust that collects on and near insulator caps along BART's electrified third rail was potentially to blame for a scary August 29 incident in which an apparent fire in the Transbay Tube led to smoke entering a moving train. BART has had its share of technical snafus this year, including two major, systemwide, morning-commute meltdowns on May 9 and September 5 that were blamed on software or computer upgrade troubles. But among some of the more minor — but nonetheless troubling — incidents have been a couple of smoke incidents, including one on October 7 in which smoke filled Embarcadero Station, which was blamed at the time