“It was an eye-opening situation,” he said Monday morning.
Crystalyn Mullins, who lives a few miles away, said when she saw the smoke she figured several homes in the neighborhood were on fires.
“It could have been very bad,” she said.
Steve Ludwig, Middletown’s assistant fire chief, said the smoke was caused by a stack of railroad ties that caught fire near the area of 500 N. University Blvd. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, he said.
When firefighters arrived around 2 p.m., they reported “a large amount of smoke” from a pile of railroad ties burning in a Norfolk Southern rail yard, according to the fire report.
Firefighters used all 500 gallons of water from Engine 81 in an attempt to extinguish the fire without success, the report read.
Engine 85 flowed its deck gun for approximately 90 minutes due to the fire being “deep seated” in the pile, according to the report.
Representatives from Norfolk Southern responded to the scene for assistance. A backhoe spread out the pile of railroad ties for complete extinguishment.
Fire Capt. Frank Baughman said railroad ties typically are stacked and that makes fighting the fire more difficult. Norfolk Southern uses that area to store new railroad ties and used ones until they’re hauled away, he said.
The Journal-News has contacted Norfolk Southern seeking comment about the fire.
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