This looks pretty awful, I hope no one was badly injured or killed (??)
CNN report: "Arizona train derailment and fire described as ‘a scene from hell.’ "
No injuries, the tracks are the ONLY way UP gets into the valley , the east west main like is 30 some miles south of the valley, this track connects down by Casa Grande. There used to be the line from Tacna about 100 miles west of the valley, that was the line that the button sabotaged and caused the Sunset Limited Amtrak train to derail, UP abandoned that section of track a few years ago so the line is active for only about 25 miles west of Phoenix. Union Pacific built several tracks at the Casa Grande interchange to handle the in and outbound freight for the valley from both directions .
videos from the news show the south approach is destroyed, most of the bridge ties and wood has burnt and warped rail. One if the club members commented that they have been replacing ties for the last few days on the bridge, so that may be an issue with the derailment
Thanks Pete. I wonder if fresh creosote or whatever preservative (from the tie replacement) contributed to the fire, once it got going.
Found out last night, and it’s kind of funny the news reported there was a small derailment on that bridge last month, and they are all in arms as why they have not heard about this before, missing the obvious , it didn’t fall off the bridge, and it only caused damage to the ties, so there was no police or fire response,. So no news to report. I guess that was part of the reason for the recent work on the ties.
There was a live feed from some news company in Phoenix filming it as it unfolded from a helicopter. I watched for a while as the fire got bigger.
I think it was a news alert on my phone or something. I don’t know how I got the feed.
John,
on one of the live feeds I watched there was at least one explosion, but the person filming did a duck and cover so it was not clear where the explosion was. the only thing I can think of that would have caused the fire would have been an overheated Journal, that burned thru the deck and started the load on fire. bundled up lumber like that would seemingly take a lot to get it started. it will be interesting to hear how the fire started.
Al P.
An unofficial eye witness report I heard said that the first car to derail was a tank with flammable liquid, which it spilled as it continued across the bridge until the excrement really hit the fan and it exploded sending the fire back across the bridge. This could be complete BS, but looking at a lot of early helicopter coverage it sounds logical.
That would explain how the bridge could be lit up all along its length.
Only takes one spark
You bet, David. And with that liquid fuse laid by the leaky tanker, wow, that one spark sure did the job!