On Good Friday, a defunct CNR bridge near Porcupine Plain, Sask burned after a farmer burning long grass on a steep slope came in contact with creosote-covered posts of the bridge.
CBC news story with video and 1919 locomotive photo.
This article has a photo that shows the fire in its early stages on one side of the bridge only.
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video is terminated???
Marty
Martin Derouin posted:video is terminated???
Marty
I can see the video. The entire trestle is burning furiously. I wonder what the farmer's liability is, considering that he admits responsibility but seems sincerely remorseful that it was an unintended consequence of burning off grass on trails he keeps open for public use?
oops
Well I guess mistakes happen! Feel sorry for the guy that started the grass fire. The bridge wasn't being used anyway and line out of commission there for some time. Let's see how CN responds to the incident.
Interesting that the bridge remained intact for who knows how many years, apparently without any problem, and then, after all this time, one small brush fire ignites it and it's instantly gone. It's too bad, and unfortunately that's also a bunch more unwanted pollutants being shot into the atmosphere.
CN should be paying him for taking care of demolishing the bridge, because eventually they were going to have to pay to have it demolished themselves.
Ace posted:I wonder if in-service timber trestles get any special fire-proofing treatment to prevent common grass fires from totally destroying a bridge like this?
How would a creosoted timber structure be "fire proofed"?
Hot Water posted:Ace posted:I wonder if in-service timber trestles get any special fire-proofing treatment to prevent common grass fires from totally destroying a bridge like this?
How would a creosoted timber structure be "fire proofed"?
Regular weed-killer treatments on the ground around the base. Or spray concrete grout around the base. Or ground cover and gravel around the base. Or metal flashings around the post bases. Something that would protect against typical low-intensity grass fires on the adjacent ground. Might be worth the trouble for fire protection on an important bridge.
Some timber trestles or timber-deck bridges have fires from train causes (brake shoe sparks etc) and that would need totally different protection. No wonder ballasted deck bridges are preferred.
Even small wooden trestles are subject to being burned by well-intentioned neighbors who read the tea leaves incorrectly.
On the Clovis Subdivision (Clovis, NM to Slaton, TX, which, at that time, was handling 12 to 16 trains per day) one of our customers, a liquid fertilizer distributor, wound up with an accumulation of tumbleweeds on his property after a big Panhandle wind storm. He correctly assessed them to be a hazard, as he sold anhydrous ammonia and the tumbleweeds were a fire hazard. One of his employees collected them and began to burn them at a safe distance from the ammonia tanks. Unfortunately, he did not notice that our adjacent 60 foot wood bridge over a 4-foot deep wash had trapped a lot of tumbleweeds underneath the bridge. a couple of stray sparks from his fire started our tumbleweeds on fire and the bridge quickly burned to cinders. Fortunately, the railroad had a number of pre-stressed concrete bridge decks on hand for a system-wide program to replace small wooden bridges, and they immediately shipped some that fit. We detoured for two days (Slaton-Lubbock-Canyon-Clovis) while the new bridge was quickly placed in service by B&B forces working around the clock. The Claims Agent told me that we charged the customer for the fully depreciated value of the old bridge, plus something for all the unplanned labor costs of replacing it, about $30,000 total, which was much less that the actual bridge cost and the detours cost.
Reminiscent of the Colorado River bridge fire.
Farmer_Bill posted:Reminiscent of the Colorado River bridge fire.
25 seconds into the video, it's quite spectacular when the entire burning trestle collapses, domino-style ... WOW.
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