Western Railroad Discussion > Fire in Columbia River Gorge

Local (Portland) news is reporting that a brush fire in the Columbia River Gorge has closed Washington SR-14 east of Stevenson (near Dog Mountain). At this location the highway is right next to the BNSF Fallbridge Sub main. My suspicion is that rail traffic is affected as well. This would be approximately MP 56.

News link http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_0705_news_gorge_wildfire.500543cc.html

Aaron
http://www.hockley.net/trains

The firs is actually between Home Valley and Cook, were the tracks and highway run side by side for the most part. Between home Valley and Steveson the highway climbs into the hills and is above the tracks most for the way. I'm surprised to see a fire this early, as we've had a fairly wet year and everything is still mostly green. And it's been fairly cool so far.

Ted Curphey
funnelfan@icehouse.net

Where is the firs? Is that why the fires burn so hot? Are we sure it is not in decline?

BTW there were a bunch of eastbounds going east (duh hu) tonight in the Gorge. Even old Amtrak waz right on time.

69boy

I drove by the fire looking at it from the Oregon side at about 16:00 and it was seen climbing the hill. A westbound freight was stopped and two others were in the siding behind it. I don’t know if that was a normal meet but it seemed that they were stopping due to the fire. Anyway I went to the Thomas event at the Hood River and left about 18:30 to go back to Vancouver and drove Hwy 14. It seems that a motorist must have started the fire as the ignition point was right off the hwy and then climbed up the hill. The fire department was still working the fire and it looked like it was under control. The amazing thing is that there didn’t seem like there was any brush to burn on the cliff that the fire originally climbed only a few scrub brushes. Once it got to the top that was a different story. Also for once the winds in the gorge were not a factor, great for the firefighters not for the windsurfers.

Todd

I came down the Gorge on the Washington side mid-day today. It was supposed to be a railfanning trip, but came up train-less. Went through the fire area, though I didn't notice any signs of fire, just lots of fire men and equipment. But, I was desperately looking down the tracks for any rail traffic.

Were trains held back because of this? I sat at Avery from 9:00 to 11:00 without seeing a train, and then only saw one sitting below the Bridge of the Gods.

Rob Jacox
Bend, OR