Does anyone know the extent of the damage or the cause of the fire today near that NY RR bridge? Thanks.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/09/20/fire-near-metro-north-station-halts-service/
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=7677796
…I certainly don’t know the cause of the fire near that bridge, but I did get to see views of it from several networks.
They sure were having a rough time describing what was on fire, etc…Certainly looked to me as the cribbing, {piling}, structure at one side of the bridge abutment…{support}, to protect the bridge support structure from accidently being damaged by an out of control boat. The bridge looked like a lift railroad bridge…They said it was some of the tracks that lead right into the GCT.
The fire boat eventually got there and put a lot of water on it and brought it under control.
The updated news wire article has it pretty well said, apparently. How much damage was actually done to the bridge structure itself is, I would imagine, still under review – but at least two tracks are open. For those of you who don’t live in the New York metro area, however, try to picture – if you can – the poor dispatchers trying to figure out how to run all the trains that normally run into Grand Central and which require all four tracks to do it using only two tracks… I wouldn’t want the job!
Quentin: proper term is timber pile bridge fender (not only cars and trucks have 'em)
And musicians… [{(-_-)}]
[;)]
I think this is a pretty good ‘textbook example’ of how to best use the various specialized fire-fighting equipment to extinguish a fire in a difficult location. The virtues of the ‘tower’ truck in a nearly horizontal position from the shore/ bank out to the fender were obvious. However, I was really impressed by the fireboat’s = ‘‘marine unit’s’’ performance, not only in the volume of water from its main deck ‘monitor’ but the auxilliary streams from another 1 or 2 on the bow. Also, the boat handling - note the white wake in the photos and videos, as it was probably necessary to keep it under some ‘forward’ power to counteract the ‘backwards’ thrust from those several sizeable streams of water.
For the firemen, it must be nice to be able to sit on and ‘draft’ about all the water they could ever want from right there, with a lot of power available from a power plant that’s not constrained by highway clearances and load limits, etc. - perhaps some of them are EMD’s ? For those of us that like almost any large machinery, this is almost as good as the railroad.
Larry/ tree68 - now that I’m done groaning at that joke - do you have insights into or references for what the capabilities of those fireboats are ? How often are they called on to actually fight a fire from the water these days ? I know they do a lot of w
. . . Was able to answer my own questions, at least partially. See -
Notably - though not stated here - Fireboat 343, which is the subject of that diagram, is named after and to memorialize the number of firemen who were lost in the World Trade Center attacks of Sept., 11, 2001. Thank you for your valiant service, and Rest In Peace, all of you.
4 engines at 2,000 HP - 50,000 GPM = ‘‘wattalottawater’’ . . . [swg]
- Paul North.
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The bridge was up and running at 4 PM yesterday afterthe bridge and signals were inspected. No damage to the bridge itself. The only damage was to the woodn pilings that protect the bridge supports.
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The 138th Street bridge between Manhattan and the Bronx is a lift bridge over the Harlem river at the south end of the Bronx… It allows ships to pass from the East River to the Harlem River.
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I grew up in New York City (Brooklyn) and know how good the fire department is. They are one of the best in the country.
Yep…New York’s Bravest!!! [tup]
Indeed. The “Firefighter”, previously FDNY’s premier boat, will pump around 20,000 GPM, with the “John D McKean” close behind. All of the big boats were too big to get in to the fire. A smaller boat, the “Kevin Kane” will pump 6,000 GPM. The video I saw appears to show the Kane in action.
A still smaller FDNY boat, “Smoke II” will pump 2000 GPM.
Here is a site with information and pictures of the FDNY fleet, as well as other fireboats around the country.