Western Railroad Discussion > UP Crew forced to abandon train in Fire

This is happening right now at 12:30

Sounds like the UP 8033 east is blocked by fire at Cobb, ID, west of Weiser. Dispatcher was trying to get someone to protect the shove to get the train away from the fire.

Dispatcher is now telling the train crew to do what they need to do to stay safe.

12:33; crew has abandoned the train and got into a fire truck to be taken to safety.

Posted from Android

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/26 13:47 by funnelfan.

Ted, thanks for the info.  It sounds really bad out that way.  Keep us posted.

Bob

Has to be very scary for the train crew.

Posted from Android

Big train or small train?

A train of empty containers would be a loss, a train load of tank cars would be a problem.

This will not stop until the nation's railroads starting losing equipment and money to fires.  They don't care about employees, but if they lose money things will change.

willobi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This will not stop until the nation's railroads
> starting losing equipment and money to fires. 
> They don't care about employees, but if they lose
> money things will change.

????

BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH???

willobi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This will not stop until the nation's railroads
> starting losing equipment and money to fires. 
> They don't care about employees, but if they lose
> money things will change.

The amount of fire fighting the railroads can do is limited. What is happening all over the northern hemisphere (PNW, Canada, Erope) more and more every summer is bigger than the railroads.

Simply put, the planet is hotter than it's ever been. Precip and snowpack are continually down in the west....the forests are drying out can there are more and more fires. Changes should have started 2 decades ago, but the horse is out the barn door and way over the hill. There are 60,000 people evacuated around Spokane alone. Yes, fires have always happened but the scope and scale of what is now happening is not...but is sadly becoming the new normal. 

PS, does Canada get to slap tariffs on us if a southwest wind below our smoke into Alberta? In all seriousnous, my thoughts are with everyone affected by all this. It's just awful.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/26 13:35 by DJ-12.

The train was the eastbound MHKPC and stopped at the east end of Cobb, ID. The fire was all around the tracks just east of there. The fire along the tracks was put out and the crew had the train under way a hour after they abandoned it. Several westbounds were backed up because of it including a Z train. Thankfully the fire didn't cross the Snake River into Oregon or my own town might have been threatened. I caught the train again in Payette, ID with far less smoke.

Reports now that the UP is being shut down again for the fire.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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---

---

Looks like a grass fire, at least it wasn't a timber forest going up.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

The detailed Idaho fire map shows a huge amount of activity. Overlapping both BNSF and UP areas of operations.

Fire crews have been running full out for weeks, they must be exhausted.

https://www.idl.idaho.gov/fire-management/idaho-fire-map/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/26 15:28 by Lackawanna484.

DJ-12 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> willobi Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > This will not stop until the nation's railroads
> > starting losing equipment and money to fires. 
> > They don't care about employees, but if they
> lose
> > money things will change.
>
> The amount of fire fighting the railroads can do
> is limited. What is happening all over the
> northern hemisphere (PNW, Canada, Erope) more and
> more every summer is bigger than the railroads.
>
> Simply put, the planet is hotter than it's ever
> been. Precip and snowpack are continually down in
> the west....the forests are drying out can there
> are more and more fires. Changes should have
> started 2 decades ago, but the horse is out the
> barn door and way over the hill. There are 60,000
> people evacuated around Spokane alone. Yes, fires
> have always happened but the scope and scale of
> what is now happening is not...but is sadly
> becoming the new normal. 
>
> PS, does Canada get to slap tariffs on us if a
> southwest wind below our smoke into Alberta? In
> all seriousnous, my thoughts are with everyone
> affected by all this. It's just awful.

Yes.

And there's nothing the railroad can do to reverse the trend.

Ironically enough, if inland freight logistics market share could tilt significantly to rail (and waterway) it would help.

DJ-12 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> willobi Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > This will not stop until the nation's railroads
> > starting losing equipment and money to fires. 
> > They don't care about employees, but if they
> lose
> > money things will change.
>
> The amount of fire fighting the railroads can do
> is limited. What is happening all over the
> northern hemisphere (PNW, Canada, Erope) more and
> more every summer is bigger than the railroads.
>
> Simply put, the planet is hotter than it's ever
> been. Precip and snowpack are continually down in
> the west....the forests are drying out can there
> are more and more fires. Changes should have
> started 2 decades ago, but the horse is out the
> barn door and way over the hill. There are 60,000
> people evacuated around Spokane alone. Yes, fires
> have always happened but the scope and scale of
> what is now happening is not...but is sadly
> becoming the new normal. 
>
> PS, does Canada get to slap tariffs on us if a
> southwest wind below our smoke into Alberta? In
> all seriousnous, my thoughts are with everyone
> affected by all this. It's just awful.

Yeah, ok. It's so hot. Good grief. It has always been hot. There's a lot more people in the way than there used to be. Also, a lot more land is left to grow on its own than in years past, creating much more fuel for fires- whether they started by mother nature or by man.
Yes, this is a problem, but it is not a problem of a sudden global warming.

Posted from Android

webmaster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Looks like a grass fire, at least it wasn't a
> timber forest going up.

The fire had been burning for more than a week in forest land far to the north, started by the lightning storm that also started the Fox Fire that had the UP shut down around Huntington, OR last week. But Saturday night into Sunday morning winds caused the fire to make a 20-mile run right to the city of Weiser, ID. It was stopped at the city limits through a heroic effort. The fire than was spreading along both flanks since then. Sunday evening the smoke was moving east and I was able to photograph the aerial battle before and just after sunset. Monday the wind shifted and blew the fire south causing this incident. It's still a raging fire that had UP shut down again Monday afternoon until after 5pm. The east flank of the fire is burning through ranches and farms. There have been four or five major fires recently in this region that have virtually covered a continious area over a quarter million acres.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

---

The fires this year have been caused in large part due to historic drought brought about a warm and dry winter and spring. But there has been a recent increase in the size of these fires, especially the lightning caused fires that strike remote areas. This is due in part to the Clinton era Roadless Forest Plan that has seen the BLM and USFS tearing up thousands of miles of roads and designating millions of acres as wilderness study areas. The lack of access is preventing the fires from being put out quickly as they often did in the past.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

> Yeah, ok. It's so hot. Good grief. It has
> always been hot. There's a lot more people in the
> way than there used to be. Also, a lot more land
> is left to grow on its own than in years past,
> creating much more fuel for fires- whether they
> started by mother nature or by man.
> Yes, this is a problem, but it is not a problem of
> a sudden global warming.
>

Well, an overwhelming majority of the the world's climate scientists, and most of the world's governments disagree with you. Anecdotely, from my 64 years of observance, the trends toward hotter weather, droughts, stronger storms and fires is plainly obvious.

in spokane i think isaw there was an arrest, not sure if it was poor judgement  or something sinister

P Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> DJ-12 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > willobi Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > This will not stop until the nation's
> railroads
> > > starting losing equipment and money to
> fires. 
> > > They don't care about employees, but if they
> > lose
> > > money things will change.
> >
> > The amount of fire fighting the railroads can
> do
> > is limited. What is happening all over the
> > northern hemisphere (PNW, Canada, Erope) more
> and
> > more every summer is bigger than the railroads.
> >
> > Simply put, the planet is hotter than it's ever
> > been. Precip and snowpack are continually down
> in
> > the west....the forests are drying out can
> there
> > are more and more fires. Changes should have
> > started 2 decades ago, but the horse is out the
> > barn door and way over the hill. There are
> 60,000
> > people evacuated around Spokane alone. Yes,
> fires
> > have always happened but the scope and scale of
> > what is now happening is not...but is sadly
> > becoming the new normal. 
> >
> > PS, does Canada get to slap tariffs on us if a
> > southwest wind below our smoke into Alberta? In
> > all seriousnous, my thoughts are with everyone
> > affected by all this. It's just awful.
>
> Yeah, ok. It's so hot. Good grief. It has
> always been hot. There's a lot more people in the
> way than there used to be. Also, a lot more land
> is left to grow on its own than in years past,
> creating much more fuel for fires- whether they
> started by mother nature or by man.
> Yes, this is a problem, but it is not a problem of
> a sudden global warming.
>
> Posted from Android

The only thing we agree on is this isn’t “sudden”. Most of the scientists around the world have been warning us all about this for literally decades but it changing our behavior costs money and requires an recognition that we need to be more responsible stewards of the world around us, so we’re pretty much screwed.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/26 02:10 by DJ-12.

funnelfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The fires this year have been caused in large part
> due to historic drought brought about a warm and
> dry winter and spring. But there has been a recent
> increase in the size of these fires, especially
> the lightning caused fires that strike remote
> areas. This is due in part to the Clinton era
> Roadless Forest Plan that has seen the BLM and
> USFS tearing up thousands of miles of roads and
> designating millions of acres as wilderness study
> areas. The lack of access is preventing the fires
> from being put out quickly as they often did in
> the past.

That’s an interesting observation about the Clinton era plan. Obviously, that has no effect in terms of explaining the huge number and massive size of all the fires we are seeing elsewhere around the world (Canada and Europe this year, Siberia and Australia recently).

Domestically, I’d be more concerned about the immediate impacts of the huge cuts the current administration has made to the forest service of which it’s widely reported are negatively impacting mitigation efforts. DOGE has consequences and they are many. 

Best of luck to you and out for everyone west. It’s awful to see and as this thread illustrates, there are no easy answers. Wishing for rain and cooler temps for you in the meantime.
 



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/26 07:04 by DJ-12.

DJ-12 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> willobi Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > This will not stop until the nation's railroads
> > starting losing equipment and money to fires. 
> > They don't care about employees, but if they
> lose
> > money things will change.
>
> The amount of fire fighting the railroads can do
> is limited. What is happening all over the
> northern hemisphere (PNW, Canada, Erope) more and
> more every summer is bigger than the railroads.
>
> Simply put, the planet is hotter than it's ever
> been. Precip and snowpack are continually down in
> the west....the forests are drying out can there
> are more and more fires. Changes should have
> started 2 decades ago, but the horse is out the
> barn door and way over the hill. There are 60,000
> people evacuated around Spokane alone. Yes, fires
> have always happened but the scope and scale of
> what is now happening is not...but is sadly
> becoming the new normal. 
>
> PS, does Canada get to slap tariffs on us if a
> southwest wind below our smoke into Alberta? In
> all seriousnous, my thoughts are with everyone
> affected by all this. It's just awful.

What is happening is over century of fire suppression is coming home to roost.  Foresters without a political agenda have known this for years and saw it coming.  All of the U.S. is subject to droughts, but the Western states are susceptible to more frequent drought and to periodic extended droughts--that has been going on for thousands of years.  Cyclical variations in temperatures have also been going on for thousands of years.  What has changed has been forest and shrubland management.  Fire suppression was adopted over a century ago to "prevent" wildfires.  For several decades, it succeeded.  But then the forests and shrublands increasingly got overcrowded with trees and brush.  The fuel loading went to extreme levels, and overcrowding of trees and shrubs made many of the trees and shrubs diseased and unhealthy, making the whole mess even more prone to ignition and to large, uncontrollable fires.  

Over 40 years ago, a forester friend of mine had a cartoon poster hung (out of public sight) in his office.  It said, "We don't prevent forest fires, we just postpone them."  And he would know--he was a wildland firefighter.  Just to top it all off, people have been building structures, etc. is very fire-prone areas, making even more fire suppression necessary to protect the structures.  But, eventually fuel loading and an unhealthy forest where fire is totally suppressed and little or no remedial logging or brush removal occurs will lead to tinderbox just looking for an ignition source.  And it will find one, either human-caused or nature-caused.  By the way, back when, I had experience working for a wildland firefighting agency.  It was a sobering experience seeing whole residential subdivisions, etc. that were totally indefensible if a wildfire occurred.  The residents were told repeatedly that their property was at severe risk if they did not do significant brush and tree thinning to create defensible space.  Most of them did nothing.  Those subdivisions haven't burned . . . yet.  But they likely will someday, and it will be tragic.
 

It is also possible that all the theories above can be true, unlike a derailment investigation (keeping this on topic, by a stretch).