Montreal’s secret metro station ferries no passengers and has no electrified tracks but it goes a long way in keeping riders safe.
Metro staffers are constantly being trained and tested at the site in order to keep them prepared for a fire in the tunnels.
The last major Montreal metro fires date back to 1971 and 1974 but that hasn’t deterred officials from constantly training workers on how to react to a fire.
The efforts take place in a simulated metro station which is not open to the public and even its whereabouts are kept confidential.
On a recent visit CTV Montreal watched authorities respond to a mock detonation.
An electrical blaze is not a farfetched scenario, according to one metro driver going through the drills.
“That can happen with electricity and the cables. Sometimes it can be just a newspaper that makes a big fire,” said Sonia Gilbert.
The evacuation process is key in a metro emergency.
“We have to be calm because we have a lot of people inside the train. We have old, young, some have bicycles, some have babies. We have so many people inside of the trains so we have to be sure everybody is out,” she said.
The simulation includes a loud bang and ersatz smoke. Ventilation systems are activated in to push the smoke the right way.
Firefighters are expected to arrive quickly but metro drivers are also trained to douse the blaze if required.
The entire process, including the communications, and the disembarkation (minus the actual passengers) and even the water are part of the simulation.
If passengers think that metro drivers don’t do much, they’re wrong, notes Gilbert.
“They don't know all the complexity of the work. They don't know all the things we do,” she said.
