By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. — A bystander called in a freight train fire in Bellows Falls on Monday night, and while this was a new scenario for firefighters, Chief Shaun McGinnis said it was important that his crew had been professionally trained in dealing with this type of situation.
“Three years ago, the Bellows Falls Fire Department worked with the Vermont Rail System on railroad emergencies,” McGinnis said. “One of the topics that we covered was locomotive fires, which are somewhat rare. Although not on the Vermont Rail System, our training with them prepared us for this incident. We knew what questions to ask, what to look for and how to navigate our way around the locomotive so that we could extinguish the fire in a safe manner and keep damage to a minimum.”
Just before 9 p.m., the Bellows Falls Police Department was alerted by a bystander to a possible fire in the area of the Hula Cat on Westminster Street. McGinnis said he happened to be working with the village’s police department that evening, which he does semi-regularly. When McGinnis and police officers arrived, the crew of the train owned by Berkshire & Eastern Railroad was coming off the train and were on the phone with their dispatch.
“We went down and checked it out and it turned out to be a locomotive fire,” he said. “Mutual Aid was called, and the fire department was dispatched. Police officers put a couple extinguishers on the fire to hold it at bay enough to keep it knocked down until the fire department got there.”
The train was stopped just south of the tunnel in Bellows Falls, about 300 feet down from the closest railroad crossing, McGinnis said, noting it was a “little bit of a hike” with the hose line.
“By then the engine was shut down so we could put some water on it,” he said. “We were there just over an hour. It was pretty hot, so we wanted to make sure everything was cooled down.”
In this case, McGinnis believes that the main generator of the train failed, overheated and caught fire. Berkshire & Eastern Railroad Spokesman Tom Ciuba confirmed, saying the initial investigation revealed that the cause was likely a failure of the main generator bearing.
“We were able to contain it to one spot and not let it spread throughout the locomotive,” he said. “There were two engines and maybe 15 to 20 cars, and the first few cars were empty. No reason to be concerned about any of the other stuff.”
Bellows Falls Police and Fire Departments were assisted by Rockingham and Westminster firefighters at the scene.
While this is a fairly rare occurrence, especially in a small community like Bellows Falls, train fires do happen, and McGinnis was happy that his crew was prepared. He recalled about 20 years ago there being a box car fire caused by welding.
“This is the first time we have dealt with something like this,” McGinnis said.
Ciuba thanked the crew and responders for acting quickly to contain the small fire that ignited on the locomotive engine.
“There were no injuries to the crew, no threat to the public, and the fire was quickly contained and extinguished,” Ciuba said.
McGinnis did not know what the freight train was carrying, and Ciuba did not respond to a request regarding this information by deadline.
