Firefighters extinguish train blaze

The Daily Inter Lake

An open-topped railroad car full of wood chips caught fire Friday morning in the Nyack Flats area east of West Glacier.

The freight car was being pulled by an eastbound BNSF Railway locomotive at 11:45 a.m on railroad tracks along U.S. 2 near mile marker 163.

After noticing the fire, the engineer halted the train and area fire departments responded to the scene. What caused the wood chips to ignite still is unknown, said Coram-West Glacier Fire Chief Walt Tabb.

The freight car and most of its contents escaped damage, Tabb said. Depending on their intended use, even the burned wood chips might still be salvageable, he added.

There was little chance the fire could have spread from the moving car to surrounding vegetation, Tabb said.

"It's still pretty wet out there," he said, noting many places still have snow on the ground.

The Blankenship Fire Department, Martin City Fire Department, and fire crews with Glacier National Park also responded to the scene.