March 29, 2005

KATE GOLDEN/Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - Firefighters put out an electrical fire Sunday afternoon on a little-used Valley portion of the Alaska Railroad.

Central Mat-Su firefighters took about 20 minutes Sunday to extinguish the smoldering ties and fiberglass of an electrical fire at an Alaska Railroad switch. Courtesy of Jack Krill Jr., Central Mat-Su Fire Chief

A man who lives in a nearby cabin called 911 around 2 p.m. when he saw the black smoke of burning railroad ties at the Matanuska/Palmer spur, near the old Matanuska town site.

Eleven railroad ties and about 20 feet of the fiberglass cover on the middle and sides of the track area were burning when the half-dozen firefighters from the Central Mat-Su Fire Department arrived. Alaska Railroad officials had already started to fight the fire with fire extinguishers.

There were no open flames, but the creosote-soaked ties were smoldering thickly.

"There was a lot of heat," Krill said.

The area that burned has a heating element that keeps the switch's track ice-free.

Putting out the fire was a relatively low-key affair: 20 minutes, one engine, and they were done.

Neither Krill nor Mark Peterson, Alaska Railroad's manager of spill prevention and emergency response, pinpointed the cause of the fire. They speculated it may have been an electrical malfunction from the switch.

Peterson noted that there were some leaves in the switch, but said he didn't know if they caused the trouble.

Peterson said he'd never seen railroad ties burn by accident.

"Railroad ties don't burn very easily," Peterson said.

Alaska Railroad security officials are investigating whether the fire may have been the result of vandalism, he said.

Luckily for the Alaska Railroad, the fire happened during a window of inactivity: The next train in the area wasn't due for another two hours.

"There was no impact to the train traffic at all," Peterson said.

The area that burned, off the main line, isn't crucial for trains to Fairbanks. Railroad crews repaired the foam-soaked ties Monday.

Peterson said the railroad was thrilled to have the fire department's help. Because the fire occurred outside the Mat-Su Fire District, the response required authorization from Borough Manager John Duffy's office.

"It was responded to very quickly," Peterson said.

Contact Kate Golden at 352-2284 or kate.golden@frontiersman.com.