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Trestle Fire Likely Started By Human: Rural/Metro

Posted on: Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 09:01 CST

By Jeffrey Gautreaux, The Sun, Yuma, Ariz.

Jan. 17--Rural/Metro believes that the fire that destroyed a train trestle over Fortuna Wash on Sunday morning was caused by someone, but they don't have any evidence pointing to who or how it started. Gary August, vice president of Rural/Metro western Arizona operations, said there was no lightning and the temperature was cool, so a natural cause of the blaze that destroyed the Union Pacific railroad tracks is unlikely. However, fire investigators were unable to find anything specific that pointed to its ignition. "There was no match or cigarette we could find," he said. Rural/Metro was called at 12:45 a.m. to the fire on the 780-foot wooden trestle, which is about a half-mile northeast of the intersection of Fortuna Road and Highway 95. When firefighters reached the scene, the wooden bridge was already 50 percent consumed by flames. Monday afternoon, about 100 workers from Union Pacific and local contractors were working feverishly to build a temporary bridge and reopen the line, according to UP spokesman Mark Davis. A large land bridge had been built using earth-moving machines near where the trestle had stood, and a crane was lifting 40-foot pieces of temporary track into place on top of it. The first test of the temporary bridge, known as a "shoofly," was slated for Monday at 8 p.m. Davis said the first trains will go over slowly as rail inspectors look on and analyze the situation. Any necessary adjustments will then be made. Davis said work was progressing well, despite the strong winds Monday. "Railroad workers will work in virtually any conditions, as long as its safe," he said. The safety standards for the temporary track are no different than that for regular track. Trains traveling over the shoofly will be restricted to 25-30 mph, much less than the 60 mph that is normally allowed in that area, according to Davis. Speeds will also be restricted because workers will be close by working on the new trestle. "They've already started to assemble machinery to construct the bridge," Davis said. "The new ones are made out of concrete cast. They're modular." Davis did not know when the new trestle might be completed. He said UP continues to investigate the cause of the fire. This UP line sees about 50 trains each day -- trains that have had to be rerouted over other UP tracks or some Burlington-Northern tracks. Davis said the traffic has been heavier on the rest of the system, but it is able to absorb it. Even when the shoofly is finished, Davis said rerouting will continue, and the traffic level will gradually be raised. August said nothing found by investigators at the scene indicated arson, except for the fact that the fire appears human-caused. He did not believe that more will be learned in the future because all of the burned debris has already been removed and the shoofly is already in place. A similar fire occurred near Yuma on Feb. 13, 1953, when Southern Pacific Railroad's wooden trestle over the Bard overpass burned to the ground, according to a 1999 recollections column in The Sun by Bob Werley. Werley's column said a transient under the bridge set a fire to keep warm on a wet and windy night. After walking over to Winterhaven for "a libation," as Werley put it, the transient returned to find the bridge on fire and tossing sparks over the area. The column said 200 men worked quickly to rebuild to get the trains going again. Instead of keeping the Bard underpass, dirt was pushed into the hole and the track was laid over. Trains were running three days after the blaze. Jeffrey Gautreaux can be reached at jgautreaux@yumasun.com or 539-6858.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sun, Yuma, Ariz.

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Source: The Sun (Yuma, Ariz.)

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