Western Railroad Discussion > Arsonist Sets BNSF Truck on Fire, with Employees Inside!!!!

A BNSF MOW truck was fueling up at a gas station in Tacoma when a unknown person walked over, pulled the nozzle from the gas fill and sprayed the truck which immediately caught fire. The three employees had to scramble to flee cab of the pickup. Gas station employee shut off the gas pumps and extinguished the flames before much damage was done. 

https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/suspect-sets-truck-fire-gas-station-with-three-people-inside/H3RDVQDRIZCULDNSTXV5T5VWTM/

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

all I can say is WOW and I am glad the BNSF track crew is safe.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Tacoma's homeless problem is completely out of control.

One of the most-revealing parts of the story-police didn't respond for 2 hours. What are Tacoma's budget priorities? Or.......they can't hire enough cops because of the way police are being treated by so many politicians these days? Thank God they survived.

BB

funding for public safety (police, fire, and ems) staffing levels is NOT adequate in many jurisdictions.  elections have consequences so concerned voters should be governed accordingly.............

66 

Hairstyles.

https://www.nwnewsnetwork.org/post/washington-lawmaker-wants-hairstyles-protected-under-state-s-anti-discrimination-law


bmarti7 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One of the most-revealing parts of the
> story-police didn't respond for 2 hours. What are
> Tacoma's budget priorities? Or.......they can't
> hire enough cops because of the way police are
> being treated by so many politicians these days?
> Thank God they survived.
>
> BB

Sadly, there are just too many people who are functionally insane, just wandering the streets with little or no intervention.  Out of sheer volume, the likelyhood of this sort of thing increases.  Most are "harmless," but none the less terrifyingly unpredictable.  Ride the Bay Area rapid transit, and you will see what I mean.  You don't need that many police when the members of your society behave themselves.  Upon returning from a recent trip to Japan, where people still know the concept, it is clear that we missed a course change somewhere along the way.  One thing for sure: American need to redefine what national security means, and where and how we spend those dollars.  More and more the daily threats seem to be from within.  The BNSF crew was just showing up for work, and fuelling the truck--something we do all the time.  An anomaly , for sure, but the potential is there with this sort of thing.

trainjunkie Wrote:
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> Tacoma's homeless problem is completely out of
> control.

Tacoma's homeless problem is no dfferent than any other city.  It's everywhere, if you really look.

Maybe the BNSF special agents should hang out at that station, in an unmarked car, for a few days.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/20 09:14 by radar.

Soylent Green has begun.

 

trainjunkie Wrote:
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> Tacoma's homeless problem is completely out of
> control.

They're actively chasing them out of Seattle, so they have to go somewhere.
Bill Pyper
Lacey, WA
 

Without having read the story, I end up having several questions:

How did the guy get so close to the truck's nozzle entry?  Was no one watching it fuel up?

Why did the truck burst into flames when doused with gas?  Was the motor off like it should have been?  If the crew was just reporting for work, the truck shouldn't have been hot enough to combust with the motor off.

Not to diminish the role of the nutjob who perpetrated this, but it struck me immediately that none of this should have happened.

BobE

The company doesn't want TY&E fighting fires on locomotives with the provided extinguisher in the cab. I.wonder if it is the same for those in Engineering and Mechanical crafts with their equipment.

Wow, glad the crew got out of their truck with only singed hair. Could have been much worse, they were very lucky!

Larry

I believe fueling in Washington state is self-service, so I am wondering why one of the railroad
employees was not manning the nozzle.  Obviously he had to get out of the vehicle to swipe the
company credit card first and begin the fueling, which might take two minutes, top.  Can't stand
out there that long?  Evidently there was no job briefing.
 
Two hours' police response?  The arsonist could have been in Portland by the time they arrived. 

I have nothing but empathy for the faction of the homeless population that bacame that way due to job loss, economic hardship, drug addiction, and life events beyond thier control, and who want to progress out of that situation. It's too bad they are lumped together in the public eye with the sociopathic, mentally ill, and/or criminal faction who seem to think of homelessness as a legitimate lifestyle, and are increasingly making all of our cities dangerous places. It's also unfortunate that due to thier proximity, railroaders probably encounter them more often than other people.

While I agree that a two-hour response by the PD is not good, I can pretty much guarantee that --if it were a violent crime in progress -- the response would have been much quicker. We do not know what other calls the local PD may have been handling at that time.  Also, at least in my jurisdiction, when you call in a vehicle fire, the fire department gets dispatched -- regardless of the cause of the fire. Even if you call back saying the fire is out, we (the FD) still respond -- just to be sure. If we find out that the cause of the fire was the result of a possible criminal act, we call our fire marshals and law enforcement. Our dispatch center puts the calls in a stack based on priority -- when the fire that is out and the perp has left the scene in an unkown direction, the call will go down in priority.

I too am happy that the occupants escaped with minimal damage but WTH were they doing sitting in the cab while fueling?

Bruce
Columbia MO

BCutter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> While I agree that a two-hour response by the PD
> is not good, I can pretty much guarantee that --if
> it were a violent crime in progress -- the
> response would have been much quicker. We do not
> know what other calls the local PD may have been
> handling at that time.  Also, at least in my
> jurisdiction, when you call in a vehicle fire, the
> fire department gets dispatched -- regardless of
> the cause of the fire. Even if you call back
> saying the fire is out, we (the FD) still respond
> -- just to be sure. If we find out that the cause
> of the fire was the result of a possible criminal
> act, we call our fire marshals and law
> enforcement. Our dispatch center puts the calls in
> a stack based on priority -- when the fire that is
> out and the perp has left the scene in an unkown
> direction, the call will go down in priority.
>
> I too am happy that the occupants escaped with
> minimal damage but WTH were they doing sitting in
> the cab while fueling?
>
> Bruce
> Columbia MO

I can guarantee here in north-central Maryland that a vehicle fire next to gas pumps would have been dispatched as a full structure box alarm with up to 5 stations responding, recently a defective smoke detector in my apt. building drew 3 stations. Fortunately I was able to silence the detector for my elderly neighbor before arrival and was able to call dispatch, it was still nice to see 2 fire rigs and 7 volunteers show up on a weekday noon-hour call of minor nature. The old fireman's saying "it's a fire till we get there" is always wise advice.

             The truck was probably not parked overnight at the gas stations so YES it is very possible it was hot enough to catch fire with gasoline thrown on it. But WHERE on the truck was it thrown that would light up. 
              Failure to remain at the pump while fueling is a BNSF rule as well as a rule on the gas pump itself and common sence.
              Going to take longer than 2 minutes to fuel a truck at 10 gpm unless it was not really that empty. Pumps usually put out 10 gpm but then who cares on this question.
              People out of work or having hardships don't normally try to burn a truck to the ground with people in it UNLESS they are already mentally disturbed.
              Druggies, dopers and mentally ill people DO come up with things like this to do. Think it is fine to do.

              And more and more states legalize various kinds of drugs for 'recreation'. Here is an example of this type recreation possibly. Does anyone slightly possibly think we have helped create another problem in the US. Some convinced the Dumba$$ polititions it would be a great idea and a way to raise tax money - which can never cover the cost of the lousey idea in the first place.

              What were the police doing? Two blocks away and arresting someone for using a plastic straw in their soda drink ? ? 

Lkirts Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hairstyles.
>
> https://www.nwnewsnetwork.org/post/washington-lawm
> aker-wants-hairstyles-protected-under-state-s-anti
> -discrimination-law
>
>
> bmarti7 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > One of the most-revealing parts of the
> > story-police didn't respond for 2 hours. What
> are
> > Tacoma's budget priorities? Or.......they can't
> > hire enough cops because of the way police are
> > being treated by so many politicians these
> days?
> > Thank God they survived.
> >
> > BB

A friend at my workplace was recently accused by a black customer of using "racist body language". The customer also said that he was going to file a report with the local police but my friend never heard anything back from them.
 

Wow racist body language that’s a new one....I can’t say too much else lol

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