Nobody was hurt despite how busy the elevated corridor is. One woman was on her way home, heading northbound on the Brown Line, when the fire broke out.
"All of a sudden, the train stopped, and after, he said he didn't know how long it would be. Then, about half an hour later, he came back and explained that all electricity has been shut down on all the lines, so we just sat there," said Carla Martinez.
Five others were in the car with Martinez. It was the last car on the train behind the one stuck at Belmont.
After an hour, Martinez and others were helped down 8 feet on ladders to the tracks. Firefighters kept the operation safe and orderly with the smell of smoke in the air.
"About two or three cars, they decided that they would try to see if they could let some others down early, so I went down a slightly longer ladder, and maybe, I didn't do a good job, because after I got down, they decided they wanted to make us go all the way to the front," Martinez said.
They then had to trudge carefully to the next exit point down to the street. Water from the fires trucks was everywhere. Neither Martinez nor anyone else were injured.
"It is Chicago... you just take it in stride. A lot of things could've been worse. That's what we decided on the train," Martinez said.
The CTA tried to get bus shuttles in quickly to replace rail service between Howard and Fullerton on the Red Line, and between Kimball and Fullerton on the Brown Line.
The CTA said around 9 p.m. that Brown, Red and Purple trains are running with major delays.
Some trains and platforms may be busier than usual as crews work to restore normal service, the CTA said.