CHICAGO _ A man on a CTA Red Line train doused another passenger with an unknown liquid then set a small fire on the train car in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood on Thursday, according to witnesses and authorities.
Leora Arsers, 26, was riding in a crowded southbound Red Line train car a little after 5 p.m., headed to her Lakeview apartment, when a man seated across from her _ without saying a word _ splashed her with liquid from a water bottle, she said.
"He flung some sort of chemical on me," Arsers said. "I thought it might have been paint thinner, just from the smell."
At the next stop, Arsers and many of the passengers on the train car moved to another car, where she paged the train operator about the incident. At the Argyle Avenue station at 1118 W. Argyle, she said the train operator locked down the cars except the one with the man, who by then had started a fire.
The operator went to the car with an extinguisher. Soon, police responded and the train operator ordered everyone off the train. Arsers said another passenger told her he saw the man setting fire to the seats.
Chicago police said they were called to the Argyle station around 5:20 p.m. for a man who started a fire, a police spokesman said. Chicago Fire Department personnel also responded and found a book bag on fire on the CTA station's platform, according to Fire Cmdr. Frank Velez.
The small fire was quickly snuffed out by the fire chief, Velez said. The man was taken into custody and brought to Weiss Memorial Hospital, police said.
A CTA employee was taken to Weiss for treatment of smoke inhalation, and a Chicago police officer was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center for "minor injuries not related to the fire," police said.
Northbound Red Line trains did not stop at the Argyle station during the incident, and southbound trains weren't making stops between Howard and Wilson stations for a little less than an hour. Normal service resumed a little before 6:10 p.m., but delays remained.
With her clothes smelling from fumes, Arsers said she ended up taking a Lyft back to her apartment. "Hey, every Chicagoan needs a CTA story and now I've got mine," Arsers said.
