(The following story by John Branton appeared on The Columbian website on August 20, 2009.)
COLUMBIA, Wash. — What do you do with 80,000 pounds of burning cardboard and waste paper inside a closed, hot and smoky BNSF Railway car?
A lot, as it turned out Wednesday afternoon, during a process that took about six hours.
The Vancouver Fire Department was called the fire shortly before 1 p.m. on a repair track at 1515 W. 39th St., said Firefighter-spokesman Jim Flaherty.
BNFS crews had been welding the outside of the car when the heat ignited the cardboard and paper. They quickly moved the car from under the maintenance area’s high roof.
When firefighters arrived, “nasty looking” smoke, changing from light to dark, was billowing out of the car, Flaherty said.
BNSF employees, who have plans for dealing with such emergencies, brought a forklift, fastened chains to it and used it to pull the large sliding doors on both sides open.
Firefighters used hoses to douse the burning material on both sides.
They were hoping to save the rail car, so they couldn’t use too much water, which might cause the material to expand or grow too heavy for the car, Flaherty said.
So railway employees brought a boom truck and used its arm to push the burning stuff out the door on the other side. Firefighters soaked the bundles as they were pushed out, and moved them out of the way.
Once the burning material was pushed out the side from the middle of the car, both ends of the car remained stuffed.
At that point, railway employees gave up on the car. They used a track hoe’s metal teeth to peel off one side of the car’s metal skin, ruining it, but exposing the material.
Firefighters kept working about 7 p.m., Flaherty said, making sure the tainted water didn’t flow into storm drains.
Damage was estimated at $15,000 for the car and $7,500 for the material inside, for a total of $22,500 plus cleanup costs.
Since the car was off the main tracks, no trains were delayed.