A trio of kids are suspected of setting a railroad bridge in Rock Springs ablaze Wednesday afternoon, sending a column of thick, black smoke high over Sweetwater County.
Firefighters with Sweetwater County Fire District No. 1 responded at 3:06 p.m., and Assistant Fire District No. 1 Chief Jacob Ribordy told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that a 400-foot section of the wooden bridge was fully engulfed by the time they arrived.
"On-scene crews were able to extinguish the fire in 10-15 minutes," he said. "It took a little bit of time since it was all creosote timbers, which contributes to the normal flammability of lumber."
The bridge was on a spur line of the Union Pacific, infrequently used but serving at least two businesses, including the Monsanto plant on Quealy Road. Ribordy said the structural damage to the bridge was enough that it must be demolished and rebuilt.
"I think (Union Pacific) is starting that today," he said. "They said the last time it was used was December, and they're trying to get it put back in use in July."
Caused By Children
Three juveniles are suspected of causing the fire that destroyed the bridge, Ribordy said. They had been playing with fire in the vicinity of the bridge, and their recklessness soon spread to the creosote-soaked wooden frame.
"They ultimately started the fire using unknown fuels as an accelerant," he said. "And the fire then spread into the subgrade structural members of the trust system of the bridge."
Several people saw the suspects fleeing the scene on their bicycles. All three have been identified, and the Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office is investigating the incident.
More Than Enough
Sweetwater County Fire District No. 1 dispatched 14 firefighters, two pumper trucks and two brushfire trucks to the scene, with additional assistance from the Rock Springs Fire Department. Ribordy said it wasn't a particularly challenging fire to contain and extinguish, given that the nearby sagebrush was still moist enough to prevent the spread of the flames.
"When we got on scene, it was fully involved," he said. "There was quite a bit of fire and smoke coming off, but it was all exterior for us. We were able to surround (the bridge) with ham lines and put it out pretty quickly."
The situation could have become much worse if the fire had happened later in the summer when conditions were considerably drier. Ribordy said the entire timber-frame bridge was coated with creosote, which tends to burn hot and intensely.
"It's a lot of fuel," he said. "It's all heavy creosote-soaked timber construction, so it'll burn for a long time. I don't know what the minimum dimension of that lumber was, but it was probably 10-by-10 or 12-by-12-foot railroad ties across the whole bridge."
Luckily, there were plenty of resources at the scene. Ribordy and his fellow firefighters weren't overly concerned about their ability to contain the bridge fire despite how intimidating the flames appeared when they arrived.
"It wasn't difficult to manage," he said. "We had multiple resources on scene and were able to plug them in at the appropriate locations around the fire to mitigate it."
