Track Work, Imaginary Fire to Close Two Capitol Hill-Area Metro Stations This Weekend

The Stadium-Armory and Potomac Avenue Metro stations are scheduled to shut down this weekend as crews repair rail lines and police, firefighters and paramedics respond to a fictional fire.

The closures are slated to run from 12:01 a.m. Saturday until the end of Sunday, according to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Free shuttle buses will replace Blue, Orange and Silver line trains between the Eastern Market Metro station and stations east of Stadium-Armory.

From 7:45 to 10 a.m. Sunday at Stadium-Armory, Metro Transit Police and the D.C. Fire and EMS Department are scheduled to run a “full-scale emergency response drill” intended to help emergency personnel practice their response to fires and smoke in the Metro system, according to a WMATA news release.

The simulation is designed to be similar to an incident in January when the L’Enfant Plaza Metro filled with smoke, leaving one Metro rider dead and 84 hospitalized.

The Metropolitan Police Department and the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency will also participate in the drill.

In addition to testing the on-the-scene emergency response, the drill will test the station’s ventilation fans, which are controlled remotely from Metro’s Rail Operations Control Center. Problems with Metro’s radio communication systems are believed to have caused some of the confusion and late response to the incident in January.

The stations are expected reopen Monday morning.

Photo via Flickr/NCinDC