{"id":74054,"date":"2019-08-20T14:20:38","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T20:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/residents-douse-fire-in-north-durango-after-dsng-train-passed-by\/"},"modified":"2019-08-20T20:20:38","modified_gmt":"2019-08-20T20:20:38","slug":"residents-douse-fire-in-north-durango-after-dsng-train-passed-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/residents-douse-fire-in-north-durango-after-dsng-train-passed-by\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents douse fire in north Durango after D&SNG train passed by"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A small fire sparked Monday along the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad tracks near the intersection of 30th Street and East Second Avenue.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Residents in north Durango on Monday were forced to put out a fire next to the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad tracks, just as the afternoon train rolled into town.<\/p>\n

Karola Hanks, fire marshal for the Durango Fire Protection District, said the fire broke out around 5 p.m. near the intersection of East Second Avenue and 30th Street, on a grassy section between the railroad tracks and the road.<\/p>\n

The fire quickly grew to about 50 feet by 10 feet as residents in the area attempted to extinguish the blaze with garden hoses, Hanks said. By the time Durango Fire arrived, it had been put out.<\/p>\n

Hanks said a full investigation into the cause of the fire wasn\u2019t conducted because of its relatively small size, and, as a result, fire officials can\u2019t say with certainty whether it was started by the D&SNG.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe train had just gone by \u2026 but if it was a cinder off the train, that is a more in-depth investigation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dick Waltz, an attorney representing the D&SNG, wrote in an email Tuesday afternoon that the cause of the fire had not been determined and added \u201cthat a transient van was observed leaving the area after dumping their cigarette butts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither witnesses nor fire officials interviewed for this story noted the presence of a van dumping cigarette butts in the area.<\/p>\n

Durango Fire Chief Hal Doughty said typically, a fire has to cause property damage or injuries to set off a full-scale investigation into the cause. But that didn\u2019t happen with Monday\u2019s brief blaze.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it\u2019s a fire without a significant amount of loss, we don\u2019t expend our man hours,\u201d he said. \u201cI understand (there\u2019s a heightened awareness with D&SNG activities), but we\u2019re not going to put significant resources to the cause of those fires.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milt Hunsaker, a Durango resident who witnessed the blaze, said two tourists taking pictures of the D&SNG were the first to spot the fire as the train passed. He and others quickly notified authorities.<\/p>\n

\"A
A small fire sparked Monday along the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad tracks near the intersection of 30th Street and East Second Avenue.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt literally started within a second of the engine going by,\u201d Hunsaker said. \u201cIt was just like, \u2018poof,\u2019 and it took off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunsaker said by the time Durango Fire arrived, the fire had been put out by bystanders. Still, he expressed concern about what could have happened if the fire had started in a more remote location.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that happened anyplace else, where someone wasn\u2019t there with a hose, it would have taken off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tim Tyson, who lives directly across the street from where the brush fire started, said he was in his house when bystanders knocked on his door, alerted him of the blaze and asked to use his garden hose.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, he had enough extension for the hose to reach the fire, Tyson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been much more of an issue by the time (Durango Fire) showed up,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing but dry brush and meadow, and there would have been a good, big hot spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

His wife, Stacey, said she is a strong supporter of the D&SNG, but expressed concern the train is starting fires, especially so close to homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get that we need tourists, but that\u2019s not the point,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is serious, and the train needs to take ownership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Witnesses and fire officials said a D&SNG pop car did not show up after the train passed by. Generally, a pop car with equipment to douse fires started by the D&SNG follows each train. Hunsaker said he didn\u2019t see a pop car until after the next train passed by.<\/p>\n

Waltz did not respond to follow-up questions asking why a pop car was not following a train.<\/p>\n

Officials with Durango Fire did not immediately know how many fires started by the D&SNG have been reported this year. But, as the region dries out, Hanks said the fire danger is increasing.<\/p>\n

\"A
A small fire sparked Monday along the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad tracks near the intersection of 30th Street and East Second Avenue.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cA lot of those fine fuels grew heavy this year with all the good moisture we had, but now we\u2019re starting to dry out and we\u2019re seeing fires picking up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

August has been relatively dry \u2013 a weather station at the Durango-La Plata County Airport has recorded 1.18 inches of rain this month, about 0.20 inches below the historic average.<\/p>\n

As of Aug. 20, the U.S. Forest Service\u2019s Wildland Fire Assessment System<\/a> has Southwest Colorado listed in the \u201chigh\u201d to \u201cvery high\u201d risk category for fire danger.<\/p>\n

Still, no fire restrictions have been implemented by any local, state or federal agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not seeing the science behind it that suggests we need to do that,\u201d Doughty said. \u201cThe fires we are seeing are going out easily, and we\u2019re not having issues with fires spreading uncontrollably. We\u2019re in good shape so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doughty said the D&SNG has asked Durango Fire for crews for added patrol along the tracks from the Animas Valley up to Shalona Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the area steam engines work the hardest to get up the hill,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s the highest likelihood area for us to get fires.\u201d<\/p>\n

The D&SNG pays for the service, Doughty said, and has requested the additional crews because the railroad\u2019s contract with a helicopter for aerial monitoring is about to run out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think with everyone\u2019s heightened awareness of train activity, it was important to the train to have significant fire protection coverage,\u201d Doughty said.<\/p>\n

After the 416 Fire last June, D&SNG owner Al Harper said he would run diesel or oil-burning engines<\/a>, which don\u2019t hold the same fire-starting risk as coal-fired engines, in times of high fire danger.<\/p>\n\n

Waltz did not comment on if the railroad plans to start running those engines.<\/p>\n

The Forest Service has determined the D&NSG was the cause of the 416 Fire<\/a>, which burned more than 54,000 acres in 2018.<\/p>\n

Residents in the Meadowridge neighborhood, north of Durango, tried to extinguish the spark for the 416 Fire but were unsuccessful. Residents in the neighborhood had grown so used to putting out fires started by the train that they invested in their own firefighting equipment, several residents told The Durango Herald last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

conditions in recent weeks raise risk of wildfire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2838,170,1480,28,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-416-fire","tag-durango-and-silverton-narrow-gauge-railroad-co","tag-durango-fire-protection-district","tag-headlines","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74054"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}