One of the great risks that every railroad that uses coal for fuel
runs is the risk of fire to adjacent property started by sparks or
ashes from engines. Any man running an engine ought to know from the
sparks thrown out and fires started whether the engine is in good or
bad order. Rule 29 says that the enginemen must report defects in
netting and ash pans; this is required so that if the inspector
overlooks the defect, or if one occurs between the regular
inspections, it will be remedied before any damage is done, and if an
engine is throwing more fire than she ought to, it is up to the
engineer to report it and get it fixed. It will take less time than to
make a report about the fire and condition of the engine, and, at the
same time save both the owner of the property and the company a loss.
In the lumber and sawmill country it is especially important that this
be done, and where engines are working in or around sawmills, lumber
yards, powder and tie plants, and other places where danger of fire is
great, the apparatus for preventing the escape of fire should be
absolutely perfect, and it ought to be the personal business of the
engineman to know that fact; he should be present when the inspection
is made, and see that it is done thoroughly, the same as he would if
he and not the company had to foot the bill if the engine started a
fire.
On the outlying divisions where traffic is light and trains are few,
if an engine starts a fire, stop and put it out. If conditions are
such that you can't do that with safety, drop a note off to the first
section crew or agent, so that they can send men out to extinguish the
fire. If you don't the Lord only knows where it may run to (on the
western prairies I have known it to go twenty-five miles) or how much
damage it will do in the lumber country.
If the precautions suggested here, which are neither new nor original,
but can be found in the rules and on the bulletin boards, had been
adopted, none of the following cases would have occurred:
June 3, engine No. 2041 started a fire at Hansel & Woods Company's
powder plant at Myron Valley; netting on this engine was in bad
order; the hood provided by the company to be placed over the
smokestacks of engines going into the plant of this company also
in bad condition.
A house and contents burned April 20, one-half mile south of Fort
Andrew, started by engine No. 1759. This engine was inspected and
reported to be in good condition, but upon re-examination was
found to be defective.
On August 17, engine No. 539 set out three fires between Selkirk
and Belmont. Fires were observed by train crew, but train was not
stopped, and no effort was made to extinguish the fires, which
burned over 15,000 acres of ground, destroyed about 1,100 tons of
hay in stack, one building, a large acreage of winter feed, fence
posts, etc.