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COURTESY KOOCHICHING COUNTY
A crucial timber rail bridge burned and collapsed just early Wednesday in Koochiching County, tipping two rail cars onto the banks of the Rat Root River and blocking a Canadian National rail artery that connects the Pacific Coast with Chicago.
“It burned down to the water,” said Jim Biersach, owner of Border Boatworks in Ericsburg, a half mile south of the collapsed bridge. “They cut the front end of the train loose and sent it south with about a dozen cars, which seemed real odd ‘cause that’s a short train for around here. They’re usually about two miles long.”
A spokesman for Canadian National Railway said the crew of a southbound train reported a fire on the trestle on approach to the bridge about 12:35 a.m. The train came to a stop but only after it had crossed the bridge.
The bridge was destroyed by the fire, but the crew was not injured, said Brent Kossey, the CN spokesman. The two cars hanging in the wreckage over the river are full of potash, a fertilizer, and they remain intact as work continues to move them off the river banks.
The incident is under investigation. Officials at the International Falls Fire Department, which responded to the scene, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The bridge collapse blocks the Canadian National line that runs from Prince Rupert, British Columbia, to Chicago. The route has made Ranier, Minn., just east of International Falls, one of the busiest rail crossings on the U.S.-Canada border.
All rail traffic through Ranier is now halted, but the collapse highlights growing anxiety in the village of 150 that has seen freight rail traffic from Canada surge in recent years.
COURTESY MARK BOSWELL
The bridge across the Rainy River from Fort Frances to Ranier was built in 1907 and carries more than 20 trains a day that are up to two miles long, said Dennis Wagner, mayor of Ranier.
“Something’s going to happen,” Wagner said. “It’s just freaking math. Nobody plans an accident. Nobody planned to burn down that bridge.”
Wagner said about 19 percent of all freight rail traffic across the border passes through Ranier and then Ericsburg. The burnt bridge makes him worry about a similar incident happening in downtown Ranier.
“What happens when this other bridge that’s 120 years old collapses? Oh! Imagine that. And then it fills the whole Rainy River full of oil and gas,” he said. “That’s going to happen, I guarantee you. Maybe not in my lifetime, but maybe in my grandson’s lifetime.”
Courtesy of startribune.com
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