Important Notice
Over the past month WMATA has not posted fire or smoke events to their API. This unfortunately isn’t due to a lack of fire or smoke events. IMB gets its data directly from WMATA. If WMATA doesn’t report fire or smoke, neither does IMB.
Unfortunately the most recent fire incident (5/18/2026 near Rockville) was not reported in the API. This incident affected a lot of red line riders heading to Shady Grove. IMB did not report the incident, because it never showed up in the WMATA API.
IMB has always been a fun site. And you should never rely on it for your safety. With that being said, we also don’t want to spread a false sense of everything being fine, when it isn’t. We have made the decision to pause IMB for the foreseeable future. To not misinform riders.
This website started as an homage to the old Is Metro On Fire website, and as a way to pass the time on an Amtrak ride. It has been a wonderful year of operation. And thank you for over twenty-six thousand site visits.
So, is the metro burning… possibly.