Updates:
The construction materials stored under the bridge belonged to the state Department of Transportation. The DoT says they weren't flammable. I think further materials testing is in order.
Three (apparently) homeless people have been arrested for starting the fire. Kind of makes sense, because homeless people tend to live under bridges, and homeless people tend to start campfires.
Three segments of the elevated roadway on both the northbound and southbound sides will have to be replaced.
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A story: Thirty-some years ago (during an extended dry spell, when cigarette butts tossed out of cars were starting fires on the shoulders and medians) a freight train was running along the line that crosses Piedmont Avenue and the Interstate in the same area.
For a mile or so, the tracks run in a cut, and then along the edge of Piedmont Park
Unknown to the crew, it had a hotbox. (Modern roller-bearing trucks don't have "
journal boxes", which the term "hotbox" originall referred to, but lubrication failure can cause the same basic effect.)
{That's an old-fashioned truck; the cover on the journal box could be opened to add oil/grease to the saturated fiber inside the box that made up the "friction bearing". Roller bearing truck axles come through the truck frame with no bok; you can watch them rotate)
It started a fire on the car it was on.
Before anyone noticed the burning freight car (it was a small fire), it had started brushfires along a couple of miles of track in the area...
The AFD was not happy with the Southern Railway.
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Map attached, just for the hell of it. (there's a scale at the bottom for some sense of distances.)
The red line traces the Southern Rwy (now Norfolk Southern RR) line from Virginia-highlands at the bottom (roughly where the grease fire in the truck began) to where they stopped the train and put it out. actually
The green circle is the area of I-85 directly affected by the fire - the purple arrow points to the place where the northbound side of the elevated highway collapsed (the lanes to the right of the Interstate at that point are a ground-level frontage road/feeder). The green arrow points to the MARTA trainyard that can be seen in the background of some shots of the fire on the news and online.
The RED arrow points to the location of a southbound segment that will have to be replaced - which spans Piedmont Road.
People who don't live in Atlanta have likely heard of Peachtree Street/Road/Industrial Boulevard (all one road that changes names).
People who don't live here may have heard of Ponce de Leon Ave.
You may NOT have heard of Piedmont Avenue/Road.
Well, ranking the three thoroughfares in order of importance to mobility and commerce, Piedmont belongs second in the list. And not THAT far behind Peachtree.
As a matter of fact, i'd rather endure closures of Peachtree though Midtown and Buckhead than similar closures of Piedmont.
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