Fire on CTA Blue Line train forces evacuations

Here's a story in Chicago that my brother James got caught up in.  A train derailed, causing a sooty fire, and some people had to be treated for smoke inhalation.   The incident happened a little bit after 5 PM, local time, right in the middle of commuter hours.   James, who has to take the Blue Line to get home from his office, got to his station about 6 PM, saw the digital signs flashing "DELAY" for about half an hour, before an official announcement told the waiting commuters that there would be no more trains coming into the station and that there were shuttle buses taking people to their stops along the way, or to transfer stations.   James just took the bus that goes to North Halsted, since he was going that way for dinner anyway.   He didn't know anything was going on until someone waiting for the bus with him got a cell phone call and was telling a worried relative that he was fine and that he had no idea the derailment had happened.   If James had his cell phone turned on, he probably would have had dueling conversations with the other commuter.   We found out about in California when it happened because my mom was watching local afternoon news.

Why something 2000 miles away needs to be covered here in local news coverage can only be explained by the terrorist attack in Mumbai, India.  From initial reports, the derailment in Chicago does not appear to have any elements of foul play, other than perhaps shoddy government contracting, like what happened in Boston.