Photo by Darren & Brad.

Metro has placed the blame for a fatal smoke incident near L’Enfant Plaza in 2015 on D.C. first responders in a court filing that requests a dismissal of legal claims.

In the filing, submitted Monday, the transportation agency denied responsibility to evacuate or rescue passengers from trains.

That job, they say, falls to D.C. Fire and EMS. In a cross-claim also filed Monday, WMATA lawyers said that D.C. FEMS “ignored the obligations that it agreed to undertake in responding to emergencies in WMATA’s underground Metrorail subway system and ignored the efforts of WMATA officials to communicate critical information.”

Additionally, the agency argues that because it is government-created, it cannot be sued.

The filing, first reported by WTOP, is a response to a civil lawsuit filed by many of the riders on a train that filed with smoke on January 12, 2015. Carol Glover, a 61-year-old Virginia commuter, died as a result of the incident and more than 60 others were hospitalized. Litigation is ongoing.

The deadly incident was the subject of a National Transportation Safety Board hearing last June and a number of investigations, most of which reached a similar conclusion—WMATA’s safety culture is broken. At least one employee was terminated for falsifying records about completing preventative maintenance, though he claims he was scapegoated and is suing to get his job back.

Mayor Muriel Bowser responded in a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, flanked by D.C. Fire and EMS Chief Gregory Dean (who was not at FEMS at the time of the L’Enfant smoke incident).

“The District will defend itself and defend itself vigorously,” Bowser said, though she declined to directly respond to WMATA’s claims, noting that city lawyers would make their case throughout the legal process. “What I will tell riders is their fire department is ready to respond.”

She also thanked D.C. firefighters. “It was my belief then and it is now that they ran into harm’s way to make sure they could save people,” the mayor said.

Metro also declined to comment on active litigation. Instead, Metro spokesperson Dan Stessel’s statement complimented the mayor’s actions since the incident. “With regard to emergency response, a function on which Metro relies on the jurisdictions, riders are safer today as a result of Mayor Bowser’s efforts since the incident to improve training, interagency coordination, and fire department radio testing in the District of Columbia.”

D.C. Firefighters Association Local 36 said that “It is most unfortunate WMATA continues to play the blame game,” in a statement. “The members that responded to the January 12, 2015 incident did so with extreme professionalism.”

Jackie Jeter, the president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which represents Metro workers, said in a statement that, since Glover’s death, “WMATA has failed to prioritize the creation of an effective safety culture. Metro must be the first to take responsibility for its system.”

Updated with further comment.