Another serious fire on the Extremadura train, in this case the one that covered the Seville-Cáceres route. Renfe has described it as an ‘attempt’ of fire, which forced the evacuation of 170 passengers, who began to see how abundant smoke began to come out from the back of the convoy. The machine belongs to the 599 series, “the most modern of diesel trains”, according to the company, which ensures that “it had been recently revised”.
The incidents occurred in the engines of the caboose. The travelers were stranded for more than three and a half hours -from 6:50 p.m. when the first incidents occurred until after 10:20 p.m. on Saturday night- in the middle of the field, next to the tracks, waiting for another to arrive. train to take them to Zafra, where they arrived at 11:58 p.m.
A good part of the travelers -144- were children between 6 and 8 years old, who were traveling on an excursion, together with several of their parents, from the ‘Manuel Marín de Zafra’ school. None of them was injured. A pregnant woman was also traveling. “We got quite a scare when we saw the smoke come out,” some travelers have explained, who have also highlighted that the train was stopped in an area that was difficult to access for the evacuation of those affected. Firefighters from the Seville Provincial Council intervened in the place to extinguish and control the fire, together with agents of the Civil Guard and the health services in prevention.
The incident occurred on a single road in the Sierra Norte de Sevilla without road access, forcing travelers to be evacuated between the Cazalla and Guadalcanal stations, specifically at kilometer 148,100 between the municipalities of Analís and Cazalla. Adif reported that at 11:19 p.m. on Saturday the railway circulation was normalized and proceeded to deactivate its emergency plan.
Two other trains were sent to the site, one from Seville to pick up the travelers and have them continue their journey and another from Cáceres to tow the incident train.
The train that came to pick them up had drinks and food for all the travelers, according to Renfe, which specified that at 11:00 p.m. the travelers were already on the train on their way to their destinations.
The company has indicated that the causes are being investigated and has highlighted the effectiveness of the rescue operation and the collaboration of travelers throughout the process. In addition, it has also pointed out that it will apply the “voluntary punctuality commitment”, so that it will return the entire amount of the ticket.
The president of the PP of Extremadura, María Guardiola, has described the new event as “shameful”. “I want it to be clear that whoever is in La Moncloa, I am not going to shut up or resign myself until these shameful episodes are over once and for all. Extremadura does not deserve it. I am not going to stop claiming until we are allowed to of treating like second-class citizens. We are fed up.”, he pointed out.
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