Western Railroad Discussion > Talent, Oregon Depot survived fire

Saw on youtube that the train depot in Talent, Oregon survived the fire. Much of the rest of town was not so lucky. Anyone have a damage report on CORP?

CORP will need to replace some ties, but that's about it. While watching a video earlier this evening the chopper's camera showed some ties smoldering. Another video taken by Talen reisdents driving arpund town showed the depot looking unscathed. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/20 23:40 by TonyJ.

Always good to hear a little positivity during these events. Thanks for sharing.

This is for all the yahoos claiming that all of these fires in California aren’t due to climate change but rather forest management. Now Oregon has seen 2x the yearly average for acres burned... and it’s not even fire season yet.

Posted from iPhone

In addition the Micro Trains HQ/Factory also survived the fire. The neighborhood across the street did not...

The speed and devastation of this fire is almost beyond comprehension. 

SCUfoamer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Always good to hear a little positivity during
> these events. Thanks for sharing.
>
> This is for all the yahoos claiming that all of
> these fires in California aren’t due to climate
> change but rather forest management. Now Oregon
> has seen 2x the yearly average for acres burned...
> and it’s not even fire season yet.
>

Trees in Seattle are dying from the top down, suffering from abnormal heat... years of it. If that is occuring in the wild, and it probably is, it aggravates the situation. The loss of trees aggravates the situation that is already aggravated by the fires that aggravate the situation.

Any switch of land transportation from highway to rail reduces greenhouse gas emissions by about 2/3 without considering electrification, which is why I have been promoting rail among environmental groups and politicians and developing short haul intermodal schemes.

TAW

Our local gold mine just switched from diesel generators to our local grid, emission reduction is only 840 tons per year.

Out 

I have heard numerous close accounts of accelerant found near evacuated house or people caught in the act of starting fires. Don’t know much more yet, but what I first laughed at seems to be true. This pertains to the northern Oregon fires more.

Posted from iPhone

TAW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SCUfoamer Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Always good to hear a little positivity during
> > these events. Thanks for sharing.
> >
> > This is for all the yahoos claiming that all of
> > these fires in California aren’t due to
> climate
> > change but rather forest management. Now Oregon
> > has seen 2x the yearly average for acres
> burned...
> > and it’s not even fire season yet.
> >
>
> Trees in Seattle are dying from the top down,
> suffering from abnormal heat... years of it. If
> that is occuring in the wild, and it probably is,
> it aggravates the situation. The loss of trees
> aggravates the situation that is already
> aggravated by the fires that aggravate the
> situation.
>
> Any switch of land transportation from highway to
> rail reduces greenhouse gas emissions by about 2/3
> without considering electrification, which is why
> I have been promoting rail among environmental
> groups and politicians and developing short haul
> intermodal schemes.
>
> TAW

Tens of millions of trees in California forests are now dead from a combination of drought that weakens them, followed by bark beatles then attack the weakened trees.  Vast areas of the Sierras are dead and the dead trees burn more readily and hotter.  You see some of the picture when riding the Zephyr over Donner, but it is even worse in other areas.

SPBrooklyn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have heard numerous close accounts of accelerant
> found near evacuated house or people caught in the
> act of starting fires. Don’t know much more yet,
> but what I first laughed at seems to be true. This
> pertains to the northern Oregon fires more.
>

It appears that the fires in the Puyallup/Sumner (WA) area, or at least several of them, were arson as well. Google lowlife and you'll probably see pictures of those guys. They're even worse than the idiots who torch stuff out of sheer stupidity.

TAW

TAW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SPBrooklyn Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I have heard numerous close accounts of
> accelerant
> > found near evacuated house or people caught in
> the
> > act of starting fires. Don’t know much more
> yet,
> > but what I first laughed at seems to be true.
> This
> > pertains to the northern Oregon fires more.
> >
>
> It appears that the fires in the Puyallup/Sumner
> (WA) area, or at least several of them, were arson
> as well. Google lowlife and you'll probably see
> pictures of those guys. They're even worse than
> the idiots who torch stuff out of sheer
> stupidity.
>
> TAW

I just can't begin to comprehend what drives these people to do stuff that normal people would know is wrong.  When I leave this world in the not so far off future, I will no longer need to worry about the dumbing down of the world.  To these folks, I say "you brought it on yoursellves".

Robert

SPBrooklyn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have heard numerous close accounts of accelerant
> found near evacuated house or people caught in the
> act of starting fires. Don’t know much more yet,
> but what I first laughed at seems to be true. This
> pertains to the northern Oregon fires more.
>
> Posted from iPhone

A little insurance fraud is good for the bank account. Especially when you're "underwater" on your mortage!

Beyond the Ashland incident, there's been some off-line comments about how similar the big fires are and some YT Videos of some neer-do-wells in Urban situations doing the deed. Some other comments about accelerants and such could go either way. People do use gasoline for things other than cars, not to mention the whole concept of back-fires to elminate fuel in decisive locations. Seems there needs to be some more info on that.

I'd be real interested in an official news release on this topic.

Here's the news report about an Arsonist around the time of the Ashland fire. The story presents a seperate incident while the big fire was in progress. Looks like another Meth-head trying to help story.

https://www.kdrv.com/content/news/Sheriff-Arson-arrest-made-in-Phoenix-on-the-night-Almeda-Fire-began-572386831.html

Sheriff: Arson arrest made in Phoenix on the night Almeda Fire began



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/20 15:59 by TCnR.

SCUfoamer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> This is for all the yahoos claiming that all of
> these fires in California aren’t due to climate
> change but rather forest management. Now Oregon
> has seen 2x the yearly average for acres burned...
> and it’s not even fire season yet.
>
> Posted from iPhone

Professional foresters that I have worked with are hardly "yahoos."  They, at least privately, recognize two important  facts:  First, climate change--more correctly, climate variation--has gone on for millennia.  There are cycles over years, decades, centuries and millenniums.  We know plenty about the first two timeframes--relatively little about the latter two.  Human activities could aggravate climate change, but they are not likely to be the sole cause.  Second, over a century of fire suppression in Western forests is a FACT.  It is also a fact that overgrown, overcrowdeed forests are prime candidates for diseased and dying trees where fires can easily "crown out" and become virulent mega-fires that are so large that they can invade and incinerate even relatively healthy forests.  That is much of what is happening in Oregon (and California) right now.   Many of these overcrowded and diseased forests have been tinderboxes for years or decades.  This year was abnormally dry in much of the West and those tinderboxes found ignition sources.  Professional foresters--most of them--know something else:  the first, and maybe only, effective tool in preventing more mega-fires like these is to manage the forests in totally different ways that, as a primary component, adapt the management to the climatic conditions they are going to face.

Finally, about climate change.  If the environmentalists are correct (a very long stretch) about climate change being caused solely by CO2 emissions from human activity, nothing short of extermination half or more of the human population is the only sure way to reduce those emissions over anything beyond a few years.  Techno-babble about alternative energy, etc. won't even close the gap on CO2 emissions fast enough to overcome the increasing emissions caused by continued population growth.  No politician or lobbying group dares admit that hard truth because no two people standing together in a room wants to hear that one of them is going to have to die to achieve the desired result. 

I don't know of anybody who is saying that humans are the only source of global warming, but humans are a controllable source, and to the extent that they can control their impact, they can reduce the rate at which the warming event is occurring.  To do nothing is suicide, so anything we can do is an improvement and the more we do the better. Sure, some things are more effective than others and some countries are more able to contribute than others, but ultimately we're all in this together.  What do you want to leave your children and grandchildren ?

Here ya go, even the UN says Global population is in turning downward:

https://population.un.org/wpp/Graphs/DemographicProfiles/Line/900

Lots of theories, even on Google.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/20 17:29 by TCnR.

TAW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SPBrooklyn Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I have heard numerous close accounts of
> accelerant
> > found near evacuated house or people caught in
> the
> > act of starting fires. Don’t know much more
> yet,
> > but what I first laughed at seems to be true.
> This
> > pertains to the northern Oregon fires more.
> >
>
> It appears that the fires in the Puyallup/Sumner
> (WA) area, or at least several of them, were arson
> as well. Google lowlife and you'll probably see
> pictures of those guys. They're even worse than
> the idiots who torch stuff out of sheer
> stupidity.
>
> TAW

Summer Grade was caused by transformer that blew
 

Show me one expert whose studies and articles are in peer reviewed journals that says  climate change is caused solely by the increase in CO2 levels.  That is simply not true.  Methane , mostly from drilling and industry,mostly  is another significant human causal factor in global warming.  Yes climate change, mostly but not all caused by humans, is real and folks in the West are paying for it.  Some of what WW said was accurate but some of it was ridiculous.
Dick Eisfeller
a videographer and retired scientist.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/20 19:13 by Dick.

See those tank cars out on the railroad filled with anhydrous ammonia fertilizer?  Guess how it's made--by using the Haber-Bosch process  using methane (natural gas) in a complex chemical process to chemically synthesize nitrogen out of the atmosphere into ammonia.  The Haber-Bosch process is said to produce the most CO2 of any chemical process.  So, if you want to lower CO2 emissions and lower methane production, eliminating ammonia fertilizer production from the Haber-Bosch process would be a great place to start, right?  Great, except for that inconvenient fact that 50% of world food production relies on fertilizer created from the Haber-Bosch process.  Oops.  Sure, we can talk about lowering CO2 and methane emissions from other activities (transportation being one), but, as long as the human population continues to increase, increasing demand for food will require more fertilizer production from the Haber-Bosch process.  Lots of politicians and other "activists" love to talk about why we should lower "greenhouse gas" production, and about who should make the sacrifices to make it happen, but few of them offer any practical, reality-based solutions of HOW to make it happen in a way that won't decimate world living standards and/or kill billions of people over time.

A few months back, I asked a fellow I know--a natural resource scientist who does believe that human-caused climate change is contributing to a lot of what we see now--what it would take to fundamentally reverse the human-caused climate-change effects.  He smiled and answered, "Extinction of the human race."  He chuckled and then added, "So, who gets to go first, or do we all go at once?"

WAF Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> > (WA) area, or at least several of them, were
> arson
> > as well. Google lowlife and you'll probably see
> > pictures of those guys. They're even worse than
> > the idiots who torch stuff out of sheer
> > stupidity.
> >
> > TAW
>
> Summer Grade was caused by transformer that blew
>  

Big wind storm. Line wires and poles down all over in Pierce County.

There were two others, not as extensive, that were arson. If I read correctly, both Bad Guys were apprehended.

TAW