SEATTLE, June 1 (UPI) -- Seattle's famed monorail was closed Tuesday, the result of a Memorial Day fire that sent at least eight people to the hospital, the Seattle Times reported.
Passengers Monday evening said they heard a "pop" in a rear car of the blue train and then saw flames shoot six to eight feet into the air as the monorail left Seattle Center.
Some 150 passengers then rushed to the front cars to escape the thick smoke.
Rescue workers, who managed to convince passengers not to jump, evacuated some passengers using fire truck ladders as others stepped into another monorail that had pulled up alongside the burning train.
"We were telling them, 'No, don't jump! Please don't,'" said Martha Bazan of Seattle, who watched from the lawn below the Space Needle. "They looked so desperate."
Officials blamed an electrical short for the fire and smoke.
The monorail was built in 1962 for the Seattle World's Fair at a cost of $3.5 million. Its two trains have traveled more than 1.8 million miles on the one-mile stretch of tracks. The system carries more than 2 million passengers a year.
