View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/midwest/2021/04/14/609927.htm
A fire over the weekend at a BNSF Railway terminal in western Nebraska is estimated to have caused $3 million in damage to the facility.
The fire broke out early in the afternoon on April 11 at the BNSF terminal building in Alliance, and the Alliance Volunteer Fire Department had the blaze mostly under control about three hours later, the Scottsbluff Star-Herald reported.
No injuries were reported, but damage to the building and its contents is estimated at around $3 million. About $2 million of that is in estimated damage to sensitive electronics inside the building.
Fire Chief Troy Shoemaker said that while the fire was mainly restricted to the building’s roof, the construction of the roof coupled with the way the fire burned through it caused a phenomenon called “roof drain.”
“Every ounce of water that we put on to extinguish the fire went into the interior,” he said. “It went through the roof deck, collapsed the false ceiling, so we basically had open penetration to the inside of the building.”
BNSF spokeswoman Amy Casas said the railroad set up a temporary worksite for employees who worked out of the terminal.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.