Orange Line trouble Wednesday Night 10/12/05

Does anyone know what happened tonight on the Orange Line? It took my girlfriend about an hour to get from Back Bay to Wellington. The T's website only said that there were "operational difficulties" between Oak Grove and Haymarket so they were busing. She waited at Back Bay for about 15 minutes around 7:30 tonight and then they made an announcement that there was no train service she asked an inspector and they said take thr Green Line to Haymarket and there should be buses waiting for you. Of course no buses were there. But after about 15 minutes of inspectors and the collector giving her the run around a train finally came. I was just curious as to what had happened.

I think "Charlie" stubbed his toe!

My understanding is that a section of Third rail heater wire caught fire in the Wellington station area, this would cause all third rail power to be shut down from Oak Grove to Haymarket until the fire was put out. The inspectors and collectors may not have known about the fire or the power outage until after service was restored.