BNSF bridge burns

[blue streak 1]

Kansas bridge burned

https://www.kwch.com/content/news/Massive-fire-breaks-out-on-BNSF-railroad-bridge-568113301.html 

Google picture of bridge.  Note new bridge beyond the one that burned

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.0398631,-98.4692315,3a,15y,330.08h,84.5t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s-F8eQWsIIjV53O3ycf48iw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[Electroliner 1935]

Looks like the Medicine Lodge River bridges. Two separate bridges center lines are about fifty feet apart.

[mudchicken]

Interested as to the cause. Double tracking on the transcon will be a challenge until the timber pile trestle is replaced by B&B. Hope the TDG river span supports are OK.

[mudchicken]

We are hearing that the bridge is back in-service today at 10MPH while they double check how charred the bents, caps and stringers are. 

If this is the case, are we looking at arson to spread fire over that much bridge in a very short period? Couriouser...

[Euclid]

It does seem strange to see that fire so stretched out in a long line, and all burning at the same rate. 

[Overmod]

Euclid

It does seem strange to see that fire so stretched out in a long line, and all burning at the same rate.

Probably sweated-out creosote, from an older era of wood preservation.  Flame would propagate rapidly over the surface, like the problem with lemon oil on ship's paneling, long before the actual 'wood' catches fire and begins to burn.  Since the wood structure is continuous end-to-end I'm not surprised to see all the surface 'flash-ignited' or preferentially lit off.  I suspect flame color is also a guide to the combustion involved.

Note the relative intactness of the underlying members in the picture even though 'wreathed' in flame.  Heavy sections of dense wood, perhaps sealed surface, volatiles boiling off and taking heat away from 'destructive distilling' the actual wood ... there might not be all that much mechanical damage to the fundamental wooden structure itself.  Don't know about the integrity of any 'heated' metal fittings.

I almost can't imagine the amount of accelerant, and the fun involved in dispensing and distributing it, if the observed spread of fire were due to arson.