By Bay City News Service

Fires that ignited at two Bay Area Regional Transit substations today may mean that longer trains promised by the agency to shuttle commuters to the KFOG KaBoom! celebration in San Francisco this evening will not be available.

The extra train cars that were supposed to be added to BART trains are located in the Hayward substation yard, which is where one fire was, spokesman Linton Johnson said. The other fire was in the South Hayward substation.

The Hayward yard remained inaccessible at about noon, and if the problem is not restored, BART will not be able to run longer trains for the anticipated heavy crowds.

Celebration organizers are estimating that 350,000 people will attend the celebration that begins at 4 p.m. on piers 30-32. Fireworks are expected to start at 9 p.m.

A fire at about 4:35 a.m. in the South Hayward train yard cut power to the Hayward, South Hayward, Union City and Fremont stations, Johnson said.

Bus bridges began operating at about 6:30 a.m., with two buses running south and two running north between the Fremont and Bay Fair stations, Johnson said. Service was restored to the Hayward station at about 7:30 a.m.

A second fire ignited when a test train was running between the Hayward and Fremont to see if mechanical problems from the first fire were resolved, according to Johnson. When the train turned around in Fremont and headed back to Hayward it crossed over something that apparently caused the second fire at the substation.

Fire crews quickly extinguished the flames, and BART crews were continuing to work and find out what was going on in that area, Johnson said. Bus service was operating between the Hayward and Fremont station every 10 minutes at about 2 p.m., Johnson said. Other BART service is operating regularly.