Police in Mayerthorpe, AB, said the re that destroyed the CN Rail trestle bridge started under suspicious circumstances, according to CBC Wednesday. The re is the fifth the local RCMP detachment has been called to in the past 30 days.
Crews responded to 17 res locally in the last seven days, all wildland or grass res. The largest and most serious re destroyed the CN bridge Tuesday, forcing the evacuation of the nearby school.
CN Rail Trestle Bridge Fire
CN crews spent the day Wednesday clearing away the debris of the burned structure in Alberta.
CN ran one train a day on that line, and is now examining options to re– store the line to service, said spokes– person Kate Fenske to CBC Wednesday.
Cornel Notenboom, president of ANC Transloading, said to the Edmonton Journal also Wednesday the loss Tuesday of the railway line will cause delays.
“This is a very large inconvenience for us,” Notenboom said. “We’re anticipating doing a fairly large job in May that may get delayed.”
ANC Transloading focusses on moving material for the fracking industry in Fox Creek, but has recently expanded to transloading pipe for the new pipeline project from Fox Creek to Namao by Pembina Pipeline.
After five fires in the last 10 days, RCMP are looking to the public for help.
Mayerthorpe RCMP and CN Rail are still investigating the cause of the re and have no leads, but Cpl. Grant Kneller said it is being treated as an arson investigation.