A three-alarm fire in the tunnel of the Downtown Crossing MBTA station Thursday night sent 20 to the hospital and shut down T service, MBTA officials said.
Eighteen people from the Downtown Crossing station and two from the Park Street station were being treated for smoke inhalation at area hospitals, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo told WHDH-TV in an interview.
The fire broke out at about 10 p.m. Because of the fire, T service was being halted on the Green Line between Kenmore Square and Haymarket station, according to an alert on the MBTA website.
Pesaturo told The Boston Globe that the cause of the fire was not yet known.
College of Communication freshmen Paul Ryan and Sneha Dasgupta, who were on their way back from the North End, said their MBTA driver announced that the B line would not be stopping at Park Street.
“We couldn’t really understand him,” Dasgupta said. “The T driver said we weren’t stopping at Park St . and when we passed it the smoke was so bad it got in the train so by the time the doors opened at Copley, passengers could smell the smoke.”
“We went through three stops because it was too smoky,” Ryan added.
Dasgupta said when the announcement was made, a lot of people got off the T immediately.
“Everyone got off to avoid smoke and T traffic,” she said.
Pesaturo said it was unclear as to whether the morning commute would be affected by the fire.
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