Railroad trestle fire smokes up sky By THERESA HOGUE Gazette-Times reporter A fire engulfed a railroad trestle near Village Green Park Sunday afternoon, causing minor damage to the tracks and burning nearby trees and grass along the banks of the creek running below the trestle. The Corvallis Fire Department responded to multiple reports of a fire around 3:30 p.m. Sunday off Conser Street in northeast Corvallis, and arrived to find the trestle fully engulfed in flames and shooting up billowing black smoke from the burning creosote of the railroad ties. Firefighters were able to quickly put out the flames, and within 40 minutes, the smoke had all but disappeared. Because creosote doesn’t absorb water, the firefighters had to use Class A foam to douse the flames on the bridge. Battalion Chief Andy Louden said the foam was biodegradable, but he contacted Corvallis Public Works to let them know that some of the foam, and some falling creosote, had gotten into the creek, in case special clean-up was needed. Louden said that it was lucky the fire happened in early July, when the vegetation was still relatively green. “If this was August, it would be running along the track,” he said, and the nearby fields may have caught fire before firefighters could put out the flames. Fire Prevention Office Carla Pusateri was investigating the cause of the fire. She said the last train to travel across the trestle had been by about 8 a.m., ruling that out as a possible cause. She was planning on interviewing a witness who saw juveniles near the trestle shortly before the fire, but was unsure Sunday afternoon whether fireworks, cigarettes or other human causes may have been at fault. The fire started under the trestle pylons on the north side of the creek, by the chain link fence that lines the bike and walking path. The wind blew the flames up to the top of the trestle, and across the vegetation surrounding the creek. Pusateri said she had responded to three or four fires at the same location during her time with the department, but this was the worst she’d seen. She said the location of the path under the trestle made it particularly susceptible to human-caused fires. Neighbors off Glacier Way said they saw the black smoke first, and hurried down the bike path leading toward the park to see the bridge in flames. Lori Ford took a video with her digital camera that showed both the top of the bridge and the creek banks covered in flames. Some neighbors took hoses and sprayed water on the grassy hillside below their houses to make sure the fire didn’t spread. Elise Schloeder, who has lived in the neighborhood for three years, said kids often play with fireworks near the bridge, but she didn’t hear any fireworks go off before the fire began. Bruce Carswell, president and general manager of Portland and Western Railroad, was at the site, and said that although the trestle was pretty charred, he expected it to be repaired by midnight. “The heat caused the rails to buckle pretty badly,” Carswell said, referring to a now-S-shaped portion of the track on the north side of the trestle. “We’ll replace the rails and a few ties on the top of the trestle, but the rest is external charring.” Carswell said some train traffic had been delayed due to the fire, but he expected trains to start running the track beginning tomorrow morning. “Once we dig into it, hopefully we won’t find anything more,” he said. Pusateri said the investigation into the cause of the fire will be ongoing.
