An accidental fire in the roof of a BNSF facility in Alliance left millions in estimated damage over the weekend.
The Alliance Fire Department was called to the BNSF Yard Office at 12:20 p.m. for a fire reported in the roof of the structure. Fire Chief Troy Shoemaker says firefighters from his department found the blaze in between the metallic roof and a roof membrane in the area where the roof met the exterior wall of the tower structure, and worked the wind-driven exterior fire with mutual aid provided by Hemingford Volunteer Fire.
Shoemaker says the flames continued toward the southeast corner of the building, and was extinguished several hours later, even as the department had to respond to an EMS call, as well as a possible corn field fire in the southwestern part of the county that also included a response from Hemingford and the Bayard Fire Department.
Shoemaker says the overall potential damage caused by the fire and response was set at about $3 million, but structural damage to the roof comprised only about $100,000 of the damage, with the rest primarily water and smoke damage to the interior and contents. He says the fire originated near a drain on the roof, and with the damage to membrane and insulation, every drop of water poured onto the roof to fight the flames entered the interior.
Shoemaker says in addition to damage to sheetrock, AFD officials and the State Fire Marshal out of Ogallala estimated potential damage to sensitive electronics inside the building at perhaps $2 million, but that figure would have to be finalized by BNSF. He did say there were some silver linings, in that there were no injuries to either BNSF or fire personnel, and railroad officials were able to retrieve some equipment deemed very important to their duties out of the Alliance facility. Terminal officials did tell Shoemaker some vital equipment was not touched by the water, including some of the signal and switching equipment used by staff.
Firefighters were able to clear the scene around 5:00 p.m.
