(The Reno Gazette Journal posted the following Associated Press article on its website on June 5.)
RENO — Freight train service was suspended Thursday between Barstow, Calif., and Las Vegas while firefighters battled a blaze in a pile of railroad ties near Jean.
“Right now, we’ve got trains stopped,”said Mark Davis, a Union Pacific Railroad spokesman in Omaha, Neb. He said the line handles about 20 trains a day, some more than a mile long.
Clark County fire spokesman Bob Leinbach said firefighters from surrounding communities and Las Vegas were working to contain the fire off Interstate 15, midway between Las Vegas and the California state line.
Davis said a train engineer reported the fire about dawn in a pile of wooden ties along the track. There was no immediate report what caused the fire.
Leinbach said Nevada Department of Transportation crews were operating construction equipment around the fire, and a foam firefighting unit was summoned from McCarran International Airport, 20 miles away.