Firefighters battle railroad ties fire for 17+ hours just outside Minerva
BROWN TWP − Firefighters from several department spent more than 17 hours Friday just outside Minerva in Carroll County to contain a railroad yard fire that was consuming a pile of shredded wooden railroad ties, a fire chief said.
No one was hurt, said Aaron Stoller, the chief of the Sandy Creek Joint Fire District. As of Friday evening, the firefighters did not know what had caused the fires.
By about 6:30 p.m., about five outside contractors that specialize in battling fires had taken over much of the operation to gradually extinguish the fire into the morning hours of Saturday, said Stoller. The Mahoning Valley Railway, which hired the contractors, owns the railroad yard at 700 Murray Avenue, about 300 feet outside the Minerva village limits.
Stoller said employees getting off work at the end of an evening shift at a neighboring manufacturing facility saw the pile of railroad ties on fire around 1 a.m. Friday. Dozens of firefighters from Sandy Creek Fire District, Great Trail Fire District, Augusta Township and Carrollton responded. They found a pile of wooden railroad ties,125 feet wide by 200 feet long and about 20 feet high, fully involved in a fire.
Firefighters eventually contained the fire and arrested its spread.
A team from the Ohio Environmental Agency showed up around 5 a.m. and were on site until about 5 p.m. Friday, said Stoller. He said Ohio EPA staff nor the Carroll County Health Department found any indications of environmental contamination including to water or air quality. The Carroll County Emergency Management Agency also responded to the scene.
The Minerva village government on its Facebook page posted at 11:41 a.m. that the use of water from the village's water system to fight the fire could cause discoloration and lower water pressure throughout the afternoon.
But the Sandy Valley Joint Fire District chief said the water remained safe to drink and use.
Stoller said he did not yet have a damage estimate.
Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. X formerly known as Twitter: @rwangREP.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Firefighters battle railroad ties fire by Minerva for much of Friday
