By CASEY ROSS
The Boston Herald
Copyright 2006 Boston Herald Inc.
As emergency vehicles raced to the scene of a cement explosion on a September afternoon, a fleet of MBTA buses traveled close behind, preparing to wade into chaos typically confronted only by trained rescuers.
Nearly 20 people had been injured when a Charlestown factory accidentally spewed cement slag over a bus yard, leaving emergency crews with too many patients to treat and transport at once.
So Boston EMS officials did what many communities must do on a regular basis: Call the MBTA for help.
“I’ve been surprised by the number of emergencies where our buses are literally used as emergency shelter,” T General Manager Dan Grabuaskas said on a recent afternoon. “When there was flooding this past spring, we had an amazing number of buses called in to help.”
In the past two years, the T has been called to more than 40 emergencies across the Boston metropolitan area, filling a role unknown to most T customers who board its buses and trains on a daily basis. The calls for help have brought the T to fires, gas leaks, chemical spills and a host of other incidents.
The random, often late-night calls, can be taxing on the T and its employees, but with no other agencies with 24-hour service and a fleet of large vehicles, Grabauskas said the T has become a regular part of the region’s emergency response.
On a frigid December morning in 2005, Newton police requested T buses to transport 150 people displaced by a fire — an emergency that lasted two hours until a hotel could be located in Auburndale.
In some instances, T vehicles are needed to triage victims and transport people to hospitals. The agency even has a special fire bus that was remodeled to provide more floor space to treat victims.
“A lot of times where there’s a fire in the winter, the bus becomes people’s first shelter,” Grabauskas said. “I don’t know how the relationship has developed over the years, but police and fire (officials) know if they need shelter or to transport a large number of people, the MBTA is available.”