CA: Investigators search for cause of trestle fire (Sacramento)

Sac Bee ^ | 3/16/07 | Tony Bizjak, Ryan Lillis and Ramon Coronado

[NormsRevenge]

Fire investigators are labeling the massive fire that destroyed a train bridge Thursday night as "suspicious" and are asking for the public's help in determining whether it was arson.

An arson tip line has been set up and Fire Capt. Jim Doucette said the blaze "moved very, very fast," leading investigators to suspect it may have been set.

"Until we rule it out I would call it suspicious," Doucette said about noon Friday.

Investigators say it is unlikely that a grass fire sparked the blaze because the vegetation in the area is not dry enough for that.

The fire that erupted on Union Pacific tracks over the American River near Cal Expo was still smoldering at some points Friday morning, but firefighters expect to extinguish in the afternoon, fire officials report Friday morning.

The fast-moving fire, first reported at 5:41 p.m., quickly consumed the heavy-duty trestle timber and tracks just north of the river and west of the Capital City Freeway.

James Barnes, UP spokesman, said the last passenger train to travel over the bridge was 15 minutes before the fire was reported. The last freight train to cross the trestle was 45 minutes. Neither train reported anything out of the ordinary, which could explain how the fire started, Barnes said.

[NormsRevenge]

Sacramento Bee/Hector Amezcua

[NormsRevenge]

Police boats pump water from the American River onto the fire-ravaged train trestle.

Sac Bee - Randall Benton

[operation clinton cleanup]

Neither train reported anything out of the ordinary, which could explain how the fire started, Barnes said.

Say what? Please explain.

[Domangart]

Just a ward of the city that needed wood for a fire.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

The new trestle will be built out of metal and concrete, unlike the nearly 100-year-old timber structure it would replace.

I think we may have an answer.

[supercat]

Say what? Please explain.

Perhaps the first comma shouldn't be there?

[supercat]

The new trestle will be built out of metal and concrete, unlike the nearly 100-year-old timber structure it would replace.

I understand that some preservative chemicals can make wood be more flammable than it otherwise might be, but what would be the mechanism for spreading the fire from one trestle to another? They're a fair distance apart. While I could understand radiant heat from one trestle heating the adjacent one to the point of combustion, I wouldn't think that process would be terribly fast.

[operation clinton cleanup]

The fire started because neither train reported nothing out of the ordinary?

[supercat]

The fire started because neither train reported nothing out of the ordinary?

The original sentence, without the comma, would read Neither train reported anything out of the ordinary which could explain how the fire started, Barnes said.

The word "which" would more properly be "that", but even without that change removing the comma helps things considerably. I wonder if the author originally wrote the sentence without the comma and accepted MS Word's suggestion that "which" is supposed to be preceded by a comma. In case you still have difficulty parsing the sentence, it is saying that no out-of-the-ordinary events that could explain how the fire started were reported by either train.

[operation clinton cleanup]

In case you still have difficulty parsing the sentence, it is saying that no out-of-the-ordinary events that could explain how the fire started were reported by either train.

LOL! Thanks, I get it now. Some things tend to go right over my head, which could explain a lot.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

About 40 years ago, arsonists torched the old corkscrew trestle on the Roaring Camp Railway in the Santa Cruz mountains. It was a real shame. Today the trains pull into a switchback siding, throw a switch behind the train, back up a hill for a half mile, then pull forward onto the main track. It was supposed to have been a lot more fun on the corkscrew trestle.

[budwiesest]

The area has lots of 'river people', hoboes with a riverfront view. Dry timbers soaked in creosote could be especially vulnerable, given our lack of rain this winter. (33 days without rain through January)

It's anyone's guess as to what they might do to accomodate the voices in their heads.

[SierraWasp]

I don't think a couple of Hobos with cans of Sterno could have ignited about a quarter mile of creasote soaked trestle even on a globally warmed day in March, 2007! This was a terrorist act on a key piece of old vulerable infrastructure.

A main line railroad route. A fibreoptic cable crossing. A major river water supply. An underground interstate gasoline pipeline. High tension power lines.

Just think of the multi-level target rich environment and then try to tell me this wasn't deliberately ignited by some cunning militant!

[Fishrrman]

My guess is that one of the engines going over the bridge not long before the fire, leaked out some diesel fuel - and perhaps sparks from a brake shoe ignited it.

- John

[bubbacluck]

I think it's called a "hot box" in train lingo.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

In possibly unrelated news, the fine folks bringing us the Trans Texas Corridor have encountered what they consider cretins on their fast track....

[dr_lew]

Eats, shoots, and leaves.

[dr_lew]

Well, if it hasn't burned down in the last 100 years, why should it burn down now?

[RayChuang88]

That doesn't sound like the modus operandi of al-Qaeda, though. al-Qaeda's tactics deliberately target humans on a mass scale, not do infrastructure attacks. Why do you think there are constant attacks on crowded places in Iraq?

[SierraWasp]

Don't you think humans ride trains? Like in Spain???