Service on the CTA Yellow Line was suspended for more than an hour Wednesday afternoon after a fire broke out near the tracks at Niles Center Road, according to CTA spokesperson Jeff Tolman.
Tolman said the incident occurred around 1 p.m. between the Dempster and Oakton stations in Skokie. Skokie Fire Chief Jim Walters said the incident was a small transformer fire. Service on the Yellow Line was subsequently suspended and resumed at 2:30 p.m., Tolman said. He said shuttle buses transported passengers along the line while service was out.
Walters said transformer fires are “fairly common.” He said fire officials were on scene for less than hour while the blaze burned itself out because “we don’t like putting water on electrical fires.”
Tolman said the fire was unrelated to an incident that took place Monday in which a woman was killed and several others injured after a car collided with a CTA Yellow Line train.
Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
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