Western Railroad Discussion > Two Railcar Fires in Less Than a Week

Bakersfield City and Kern County FD crews were called out to two (2) railcar fires in the Bakersfield area in less than a week. In the first incident, Bakersfield Fire Crews were called out last Saturday night (2/24) to an auto carrier with new vehicles on fire as it was passing through. Officials first stopped the train under the Highway 99 at the west end of town, but later moved to the train so fire cares had better water access. The video shows the burning auto carrier next to a string of tank cars, and while reports said that the tanks were empty, that would not have been my first choice to battle a railcar fire. Bakersfield FD reports damage could be as much as half a million dollars, and is investigating.
In the second incident, just this past Wednesday evening (2/28), Bakersfield and Kern County FD battled a fire in a boxcar loaded with paper rolls. It was reported that after an initial attack, the fire departments decided to close up the car and let the fire burn itself out. In both incidents, I would say that there is a 95% probability that these were arson-caused. I mean new cars and closed boxcars routinely and spontaneously burst into flames while traversing the country. Unfortunately, I cannot post the YouTube links of these fires.

Thanks for the update.  Who knows about the car fire, that is an on-going problem with the batteries in electic vehicles. Sometimes it takes an accident, sometimes it doesn't to ignite the batteries.  

FishinJeeper Wrote:
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> Who knows about the car
> fire, that is an on-going problem with the
> batteries in electric vehicles. 

Has there been an official report that the vehicles were electric vehicles? If not, you are just passing on innuendo and speculation.

longliveSP Wrote:
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> FishinJeeper Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Who knows about the car
> > fire, that is an on-going problem with the
> > batteries in electric vehicles. 
>
> Has there been an official report that the
> vehicles were electric vehicles? If not, you are
> just passing on innuendo and speculation.

Per  a post by Gene Poon it came from a comment on a You Tube video, not what you would call a reliable source.

I don't think it was a battery fire as they got it knocked down pretty quickly. If it had been a battery fire it would have been a bit harder to put out, plus electrics tend to travel together which means the whole railcar would have been ablaze for a long time.

 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

PHall Wrote:
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> longliveSP Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > FishinJeeper Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Who knows about the car
> > > fire, that is an on-going problem with the
> > > batteries in electric vehicles. 
> >
> > Has there been an official report that the
> > vehicles were electric vehicles? If not, you
> are
> > just passing on innuendo and speculation.
>
> Per  a post by Gene Poon it came from a comment
> on a You Tube video, not what you would call a
> reliable source.

webmaster Wrote:
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> I don't think it was a battery fire as they got it
> knocked down pretty quickly. If it had been a
> battery fire it would have been a bit harder to
> put out, plus electrics tend to travel together
> which means the whole railcar would have been
> ablaze for a long time.

EXACTLY MY POINT!

People should stop the silliness of regurgitating someone else's unsubstanticated and spuculative opinion as somehow fact. This world would be so much better.

There have been a few fires on board ships carrying used / junker cars for overseas sales. Even with just a few gallons of gasoline in each vehicle, sparks from the "pusher car" or the pushed cargo can set off a fire.

Two firefighters died at Port Newark NJ when they were trapped below decks in a car carrier.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> There have been a few fires on board ships
> carrying used / junker cars for overseas sales.
> Even with just a few gallons of gasoline in each
> vehicle, sparks from the "pusher car" or the
> pushed cargo can set off a fire.
>
> Two firefighters died at Port Newark NJ when they
> were trapped below decks in a car carrier.

Wasn't at least one ship sunk by a fire that started with an EV?

ts1457 Wrote:
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> Lackawanna484 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > There have been a few fires on board ships
> > carrying used / junker cars for overseas sales.
> > Even with just a few gallons of gasoline in
> each
> > vehicle, sparks from the "pusher car" or the
> > pushed cargo can set off a fire.
> >
> > Two firefighters died at Port Newark NJ when
> they
> > were trapped below decks in a car carrier.
>
> Wasn't at least one ship sunk by a fire that
> started with an EV?

I believe a Kia / Hyundai auto carrier caught fire and burned in Brunswick GA a few years ago.  And a Mercedes auto carrier caught fire and sank off the Azores.

webmaster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't think it was a battery fire as they got it
> knocked down pretty quickly. If it had been a
> battery fire it would have been a bit harder to
> put out, plus electrics tend to travel together
> which means the whole railcar would have been
> ablaze for a long time.
>
>  

Very true and checked all videos listed the  fire spokesman spoke about it durning an interview listend twice didn hear anything about electrics. And like you have seen on Youtube videos how they act these did not.
 

longliveSP Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> FishinJeeper Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Who knows about the car
> > fire, that is an on-going problem with the
> > batteries in electric vehicles. 
>
> Has there been an official report that the
> vehicles were electric vehicles? If not, you are
> just passing on innuendo and speculation.

Upon rereading this, never said the vehicles on the auto racks were ev's, I'm saying that's a problem with ev's.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 02/29/24 10:22 by FishinJeeper.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> I believe a Kia / Hyundai auto carrier caught fire
> and burned in Brunswick GA a few years ago.  And
> a Mercedes auto carrier caught fire and sank off
> the Azores.

The MV Golden Ray rolled over after departing
Brunswick, GA when executing turn due to 
inadequate stability calculations that left the ship
with dangerously high center of gravity. They
were lucky that it happened in shallow water
or there would have been no survivors.

SOO6617 Wrote:
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> Lackawanna484 Wrote:
> -------------------------------------------------- -----
> > I believe a Kia / Hyundai auto carrier caught fire
> > and burned in Brunswick GA a few years ago. And
> > a Mercedes auto carrier caught fire and sank off
> > the Azores.
>
> The MV Golden Ray rolled over after departing
> Brunswick, GA when executing turn due to 
> inadequate stability calculations that left the> ship
> with dangerously high center of gravity. They
> were lucky that it happened in shallow water
> or there would have been no survivors.

The Azores sinking did appear to be EV related:

Massive cargo ship carrying electric cars sinks in Atlantic Ocean after fire | Euronews

ts1457 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SOO6617 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Lackawanna484 Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>  -----
> > > I believe a Kia / Hyundai auto carrier
> caught fire
> > > and burned in Brunswick GA a few years
> ago. And
> > > a Mercedes auto carrier caught fire and
> sank off
> > > the Azores.
> >
> > The MV Golden Ray rolled over after departing
> > Brunswick, GA when executing turn due to 
> > inadequate stability calculations that left the>
> ship
> > with dangerously high center of gravity. They
> > were lucky that it happened in shallow water
> > or there would have been no survivors.
>
> The Azores sinking did appear to be EV related:
>
> Massive cargo ship carrying electric cars sinks in
> Atlantic Ocean after fire | Euronews

But was the fire started by the EV's or was there another cause for the fire?
EV fires usually happen while the batteries are being charged or they are physically damaged in a collision.