‘End of summer’? Does derailment mean restrictions, early end to lake recreation?

Vince Velotta and Erica Cansky, who live in the Lakeside Drive Apartments, a block from the Tempe Town Lake bridge, said they slept through the train derailment Wednesday morning, only learning about it from social media after waking up.

“We didn’t realize how severe it was until we came outside,” Velotta said. “It’s insane, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

A Union Pacific freight train derailed as it crossed the bridge over Tempe Town Lake, causing multiple fires and a partial collapse of 100-year-old railroad bridge. The cause of the derailment is under investigation.

The flames, smoke and sirens from first responders drew dozens of people to the shoreline to watch fire crews spray water on burning train cars.

Residents from nearby apartment complexes and a few other curious onlookers watched from across Rio Salado Parkway or hovered on a grassy hill with views of the burning train.

Velotta and Cansky said they expect the disaster will affect the lake and the park, a popular hangout for people from all over the Valley during the summer.

Michael Selvey, another resident of the Lakeside Drive Apartments, went outside to check on the wreckage several times since he first saw debris falling in the water from the train above and a hot orange glow across the entire bridge earlier in the morning. Firefighters had mostly extinguished the visible flames on the bridge by noon.

“It’s concerning, especially knowing that the part where the cars fell off the bridge is ... a high traffic area,” he said. “I use that road daily.”

Selvey said he also thinks that the derailment will have a big impact on the lake for the next several days, if not weeks.

“This may be the end of the summer for Tempe Town Lake,” he said, shielding his eyes from the sun.

Eliasz Ostling, an 18-year-old who lives a couple blocks from the bridge and who often bikes around the lake, said he doesn’t mind if the area shuts down for a while.

“There’s too many people there during the pandemic,” he said, laughing through his mask.

A Tempe resident near the lake, Elizabeth Deitchman said she took a step outside for an early morning walk with her dog. That’s when she quickly noticed “dark smoke clouds” coming from the bridge and knew something was awry.

She walked closer to the fire to check it out and saw law enforcement vehicles and firefighters surrounding the area where the train derailed and was on fire.

Deitchman said she watched, and it didn’t seem like fire crews “wanted to approach it immediately.” Crews eventually hosed down the scene and extinguished the fire.

“It really just looks like a metal pile of a mess, and I think it could’ve been avoided,” Deitchman added.

Seated in the shade near yellow caution tape and watching the flames, Seksit Thongmak, 32, said he often goes running near Tempe Town Lake — sometimes as early as 3 a.m. to beat the summer heat. When he got home from his run Wednesday morning, he saw smoke near the bridge and quickly returned to see it up close.

Thongmak was shocked by the derailment, he said, and wondered aloud how much it would cost to rebuild the bridge and reroute trains around the damage. He studied transportation and works as a part-time truck driver.

Nearby residents were joined by spectators from other places in the Valley.

Mona Waheed, for example, said she drove her two children down from Scottsdale to observe the derailment. Her young son, Zachy, was eagerly watching the smoking cars piled atop one another and the firefighters extending their hose lines to douse the last of the flames.

“He loves seeing trains and interesting things,” Waheed said. “He really wanted to see it.”

Her son excitedly added, “I saw the news, and I said, ‘What was that!’ ... Then I saw that it was the train off the rail!”

Lois and Armand Slason, who have lived in Arizona their entire lives, said they went to see the damage of a bridge they considered a landmark in Tempe. Other bridges had come and gone: The Ash Avenue bridge was torn down in the 90s, and other routes over the Salt River were sometimes flooded in the past.

The railroad bridge, over 100 years old, had been a constant, they said.

“I hate to think that they’re going to have to get rid of that bridge,” Lois Slason said.

Armand called the damage “catastrophic.”