In 416 fire, Durango wonders if coalfired train is to blame
Cinders spewed out of the vintage coal train’s smokestack as the locomotive chugged up a droughtstricken mountain canyon between Durango and Silverton in late spring.
Following behind was a small crew of certified firefighters flying a helicopter, rolling on the tracks in two “speeder” cars and riding in the rear train car beside a 1,000gallon tank armed with a water cannon in case embers ignited spot fires.
In May, the layered fire protection system worked to extinguish five spot fires that sparked to life along the rails in heavily forested La Plata County, according to people who helped put out the flames. But now locals are wondering if the train that draws tourists from around the world is to blame for a devastating fire that has burned through 54,000 acres north of Durango and continues to flare up.
“There has been a lot of contro versy and rumors about whether the train started the fire,” said Theresa Blake Grave, spokeswoman for the Durango Chamber of Commerce.
The 416 fire, as it is known, began June 1. It is the sixthlargest wildfire in Colorado history and triggered thousands of evacuations and severely damaged the local economy.
“This fire was a freak accident in a drought. I can’t tell you if the train started it or not because that’s not what you do when you have insurance,” said Al Harper, who along with his wife, Carol, has owned the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad for 20 years, and recently consulted with his insurer’s
adjusters and attorneys.
Durango Mayor Sweetie Marbury, La Plata County Commission chairwoman Gwen Lachelt and 416 fire officials also have said they don’t yet know who is responsible for starting the fire.
But two train-loving fanatics who live beside the train tracks say they have little doubt that it was the train. One of them is Durango chemist Cresswell “Cres” Fleming, a retiree who doubles as Santa Claus on the train’s popular Polar Express excursions and who says he tried to extinguish the fire.
Fleming said the fire started 20 feet from the tracks moments after the train passed by, noting that there were no nearby campers and there hadn’t been a storm in three weeks.
One thing that is not in dispute is that the wildfire has already taken a devastating toll on Durango’s economy, $33 million in June alone, Grave said. The fire also has caused health hazards and turned pristine mountain views into groves of charred stumps that already have led to numerous canceled real estate deals. At a time when climate change is becoming an increasingly big concern in drought-stricken southern Colorado, with predictions of more frequent and larger fires, Harper’s coal-fired train has garnered fiery opposition.
U.S. Forest Service law enforcement agents are investigating the cause of the fire. But even before the investigation is over, Harper said he hopes to get his two vintage coal trains running again.
Harper said Forest Service investigators told him that the probe could take anywhere from two weeks to two years. He hopes to rehire 75 of the 150 employees he furloughed in early June by Thursday, when the coal train could be back in business. The only hint officials gave Harper about what they think caused the fire is that humans and not lightning was to blame.
But before Harper can start sending his coal trains back into the mountains, the La Plata County Commission has to lower fire restrictions to Stage II, something the three-member commission unanimously refused to do on June 21.
“There is a ton of community concern. We’re getting a lot of pressure to change fire restrictions,” County Commissioner Lachelt said Wednesday, a day before the commission was to vote. “There are a lot of people advocating for reopening the coal-fired train.”
Mayor Marbury said the coal train not only drives the local economy, it’s ingrained in Durango’s history, helping to create the town in 1881.
She doesn’t have much patience for what she believes is a small percentage of Durango residents who are opposed to the coal train. “They’re looking for someone to blame. I say, take a breath. Life will come back to normal,” she said.
Harper acknowledges the fire started 20 feet from the tracks, but he says the train may not have caused the fire. The 416 fire could have been started by a camper, a dropped cigarette or a piece of glass magnified by the sun, he said.
That’s crazy, said William Holden, a Durango in- ventor.
“Everyone I’ve spoken to is pretty certain the train started the fire,” he said. “I’m concerned about the pollution the coal train causes as well as the fire hazard.”
Maybe the two most valuable witnesses to the origin of the fire are Fleming and his neighbor, Al Chione, the self-proclaimed train “nut” who built his home on a bluff overlooking an S-curve in the train tracks so he could spend his retirement enjoying the train.
Fleming and Chione belong to a homeowners association with eight upscale homes near the tracks. Concerned about three bone-dry seasons beginning in autumn of 2017, members of the group have cut trees and bushes on their properties to reduce fire dangers to their homes and watch as the trains go by looking for fires.
Fleming converted an HOA-owned pickup truck outfitted with a 300-gallon tank used for beetle eradication into a water tank for fire suppression. In May, he put out two fires started by the train, he said.
On June 1, the day the 416 fire started, Chione and his wife were on his deck watching a train pass by when they spotted a wisp of smoke. They immediately called Fleming and the fire department. The neighbors made efforts to put out the fire but it was moving too quickly.
“It was a red flag day. Winds out of the east took the fire right up the hill. The fire was about 20 feet too far for me to reach. The rest is history,” he said.
Harper said he isn’t waiting for the forest service investigation to be completed before acting. Since the wildfire started, he and his wife signed a contract to buy two diesel-powered train engines that don’t pose a wildfire hazard. In times of drought, he’ll store his coal-fired trains and put the diesel engines into service, he said. But in normal precipitation years, he said, the coal-fired train’s streak of 136 years of use will continue.
“If the railroad started the fire, we’ll take whatever steps necessary to make it right,” he said. “Nobody loves this community more than I do.”