Fire crews battled a blaze that consumed a rail car loaded with automobiles at Union Pacific’s Bailey Yard in North Platte, Nebraska officials there said.
The fire was reported around 10:30 p.m. Sunday July 12th, not far from the Golden Spike observation tower, officials said. Arriving firefighters found the car fully engulfed in flames. It took several hours for fire crews from several surrounding departments, as well as Union Pacific employees, to extinguish the fire.
No one was injured, but all of the vehicles loaded on the rail car were destroyed. Officials are investigating the cause of the fire.
Bailey Yard is the world’s largest railroad classification yard, where workers sort, service and repair locomotives and cars headed all across North America.
One of the first responders stated that he received a jolt of electricity when he arrived on the scene and Tesla confirmed that could be the case since the batteries could be discharging.
"You could see it from about a quarter or half a mile away. You could see the flames. It was glowing pretty good," said North Platte Fire Department Captain Emerald Miller.
Around 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, the North Platte Fire Department said they received a call of a fire at Bailey Yard just north of the Golden Spike. "We were lead in by UP personnel and so we were able to access it. What really helped this situation and that's why I want to give credit to UP personnel on scene as well. As we were arriving, they were actually moving the burning car closer to us so we could access it," said Capt. Miller.
Captain Miller said the rail car was fully engulfed upon arrival.
"We had a really good idea that whatever was on there was probably a total loss. Our strategy then switched over to life safety as well as just trying to stabilize the incident itself," said Capt. Miller.
As for the cause, it's still unknown.
"It was just such a thorough melting of everything, it's almost impossible to determine the exact point of ignition. We would hope we would be able to figure that out but the trouble is it was just so much damage that I don't think we'll be able to figure it out," said Miller.
The fire department said it took around three hours to completely extinguish the fire.
"A rail car carrying finished vehicles caught fire inside of Bailey Yard yesterday at 10:30 p.m. The North Platte Fire Department responded quickly to put the fire out and there were no injuries. We are investigating the cause of the fire," said a Raquel Espinoza, a spokesperson for Union Pacific.
Fire department officials said staff on scene estimated damage costs to be around $500,000.
[URL unfurl="true"]https://res.cloudinary.com/engineering-com/image/upload/v1596120975/tips/Tesla_sdej47.pdf[/url]
The fire was reported around 10:30 p.m. Sunday July 12th, not far from the Golden Spike observation tower, officials said. Arriving firefighters found the car fully engulfed in flames. It took several hours for fire crews from several surrounding departments, as well as Union Pacific employees, to extinguish the fire.
No one was injured, but all of the vehicles loaded on the rail car were destroyed. Officials are investigating the cause of the fire.
Bailey Yard is the world’s largest railroad classification yard, where workers sort, service and repair locomotives and cars headed all across North America.
One of the first responders stated that he received a jolt of electricity when he arrived on the scene and Tesla confirmed that could be the case since the batteries could be discharging.
"You could see it from about a quarter or half a mile away. You could see the flames. It was glowing pretty good," said North Platte Fire Department Captain Emerald Miller.
Around 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, the North Platte Fire Department said they received a call of a fire at Bailey Yard just north of the Golden Spike. "We were lead in by UP personnel and so we were able to access it. What really helped this situation and that's why I want to give credit to UP personnel on scene as well. As we were arriving, they were actually moving the burning car closer to us so we could access it," said Capt. Miller.
Captain Miller said the rail car was fully engulfed upon arrival.
"We had a really good idea that whatever was on there was probably a total loss. Our strategy then switched over to life safety as well as just trying to stabilize the incident itself," said Capt. Miller.
As for the cause, it's still unknown.
"It was just such a thorough melting of everything, it's almost impossible to determine the exact point of ignition. We would hope we would be able to figure that out but the trouble is it was just so much damage that I don't think we'll be able to figure it out," said Miller.
The fire department said it took around three hours to completely extinguish the fire.
"A rail car carrying finished vehicles caught fire inside of Bailey Yard yesterday at 10:30 p.m. The North Platte Fire Department responded quickly to put the fire out and there were no injuries. We are investigating the cause of the fire," said a Raquel Espinoza, a spokesperson for Union Pacific.
Fire department officials said staff on scene estimated damage costs to be around $500,000.
[URL unfurl="true"]https://res.cloudinary.com/engineering-com/image/upload/v1596120975/tips/Tesla_sdej47.pdf[/url]
