(The Lake County, Mont., Leader & Advertiser posted the following article by B.L. Azure on its website on March 7.)
ARLEE, Mont. — Last Wednesday around 5 p.m. a Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad engine caught fire near here. Quick reaction by the Arlee VFD helped keep the fire from spreading to other engines in the four-engine train and from igniting the fuel tank of the train on fire.
According to Arlee VFD Chief Drew Hendrickson, the VFD responded to the fire at 5:15 p.m. “A Burlington Northern Santa Fe train with four engines pulled into town with one of the engines on fire,” he said. “Flames were shooting 30 to 40 feet in the air from one of the smoke stacks.”
Hendrickson said that the crankcase oil in the third engine caught fire. Each engine has approximately 400 gallons of crankcase oil in it. The main concern for the VFD and BNSF personnel was the 5,000 gallons of fuel located in tanks beneath the engines.
The Missoula bound train did not have any other substances aboard that posed dangers to people or the environment. However, for safety reasons four homes within 300 yards of the area where the train stopped were evacuated.
The diesel flow was shutoff by the engineers and the crankcase oil was easily extinguished after that, Hendrickson said. There were no injuries and people were able to return to their homes shortly after the fire was extinguished.