Deputies and Emergency Services fire teams responded to a fire last night near railroad tracks north of MM 108. Approximately 10,000 railroad ties were on fire at two separate locations. Train traffic was halted while crews put out the fire. pic.twitter.com/zQLQfyZJ2k
— PuebloCounty Sheriff (@PuebloCountySO) April 12, 2020
PUEBLO, Colo. — BNSF Railway police and local officials are investigating the cause of a fire that incinerated about 10,000 cross ties near Pueblo last weekend, according to the Pueblo County (Colorado) Sheriff’s office that posted photographs to Twitter of crossties in flames.
A BNSF Railway representative says the “spent” ties belonged to Union Pacific, which has operational and maintenance agreements with BNSF along BNSF’s Pike’s Peak Subdivision. The representative confirmed media reports that arson is suspected in connection with the fire.
Sheriff’s department photos indicate the fire happened Saturday, April 11, and stopped train traffic while emergency crews fought the blaze.
UPDATED: Comments from BNSF Railway representative. April 14, 2020, 7:12 a.m. Central time.
It may have been someone tired of looking at the discarded ties. Most railroads years ago kept their ROWs fairly clean at least for safety reasons. The NS line that runs thru the town I live in was no exception. But over the past ten years or so when they’ve done major tie change outs, they stack them in large stacks up and down the line. And then they leave them for years. NS did finally remove the ones that were stacked in town limits after they were asked but they haven’t touched the other stacks. It’s there property so I guess they can do what they want but it seems to me to be a safety hazard they wouldn’t want. I know when I was a kid we would have been all over those stacks of ties. Back then if we’d gotten hurt, to bad. But nowadays a good lawyer could probably cost the railroad a lot of money.
When I travelled on the Alaska RR about 20 years ago I was told by one of the train staff that their used ties were sold to a power station to be chipped and burned as an addition to the normal coal fuel.
So Richard, it’s now BNSF fault for leaving stacks of ties laying around just tempting some sick arsonist who is unable to control themselves. Good grief!
Hopefully they were used and there is little loss to BNSF. Although the opportunity to recycle has gone up in smoke.
10 to 1 odds says it was stacks of used/removed ties. Hey, y’all at BNSF, looks like it’s time to rethink this piling and leaving ties unsecured thing. There are probably thousands of gondolas and open top hoppers just sitting around that they can be stored in. Just make sure you load them so no ties are visible above the top of the car and you probably need to put them in company freight yards where they can be more easily kept under observation until they can be recycled, sold or otherwise disposed of.
Good thinking that arson is suspected. I wonder if the Pueblo Fire Dept has an arson investigator assisting the BNSF police and where the nearest BNSF S/A is located. (Denver?)
Whether used or new is besides the point, the only thing that matters is whether it was arson or not. As for disposition, you can still get used ties to put around yards…at least here in California and we’re pretty strict on that stuff. Jim Norton, do you propose the railroads hire enough police officers to patrol the rite of way 24/7?, get real, it’s impossible to patrol the thousands of miles of rail lines in the United States.
Like deferred maintenance of the 1960s we are experiencing deferred security of today. The rails are a giant play ground. But woe the the photographer or jogger.
I’ll bet if they are contractors ties the BNSF investigation will probably fizzle faster than the flames.
For many years ties were for sale along the C&NW RoW north of Milwaukee. Do not know if the site was run by the RR or a contractor. In Oshkosh the Wisc. Central ran a large chipper op. Hard to believe, but the Milwaukee Rd. burned ties on Lines West.
That volume of ties would most likely be used ties owned by a contractor who collected them to dispose of. Most tie treating plants and burn them at very high temperature which destroys the hazards in the ties and then uses the energy to cook the new ties. Or they can give them to a tourist railroad and get reused again. Only railroad involvement was letting the contractor store them on their property. Contractor takes the loss and writes it off.