Vancouver fire crews on the land and water doused a blaze on the Canadian Pacific Railway trestle bridge over the North Arm of the Fraser River Wednesday afternoon that closed traffic to and from Richmond across the nearby Oak Street Bridge for about an hour because of dense smoke that could be seen across the region.
The swing-span trestle, known as the Marpole Bridge, was originally built in 1902 and replaced in 1966.
The fire, which resulted in four fire trucks dispatched to the scene at 4:50 p.m., was successfully put out, with the Oak Street Bridge reopened to traffic in both directions at 5:55 p.m., said Vancouver Assistant Fire Chief Dale Booth.
While road traffic was affected, aircraft landing at nearby YVR was not, said Vancouver Airport Authority spokesperson Kate Donegani.
“There was no impact at all to flight operations,” she said, adding road closures may have delayed some passengers making their way to and from the airport terminals on Sea Island.
For one landing passenger on a flight from Toronto, the smoke provided some scary moments.
“Flew right through this — as we were landing at the YVR. For a couple of seconds thought that was our engine burning,” said Timur Kalyuzhnyy in a post on the Richmond News’ Facebook page.
About 100 metres of train trestle on the rail bridge caught fire and “spread all the way to the manning shed at the back,” said Booth, adding a fire boat was then called in to mop up the fire, “ensuring it won’t spark back up.”
Booth said he doesn’t know what caused the blaze, and that the bridge suffered extensive damage. “I would say it will be closed for a while.”
Booth also said that he believes any environmental damage would be minimal. “We got water on it right away, so other than a bit of creosote, I think the environment will be OK.”
Nothing was on the bridge at the time, he added.
CPR spokesman Ed Greenberg also said that the cause of the fire remains unknown. Greenberg noted that the bridge has limited service and that there were no trains in the area at the time of the fire. “We have maybe one train a week that accesses that bridge.”
He said engineering experts will conduct a full inspection to determine the extent of damage, but he couldn’t say when the bridge will reopen.
“Our mainline operations have not been impacted by this incident,” he added.
— with files from the Richmond News
