Ogden Fire Chief Mike Slater told the Standard-Examiner that crews were called to the scene of a fire in the 3100 block of Pacific Avenue just to the north of the 31st Street viaduct on the western edge of Union Pacific’s railyard in Ogden shortly before noon Tuesday.

“Just before noon, crews got paged out to what they said was a grass fire in the railyard west of 31st and Pacific,” he said. “Crews arrived on scene to find it was not a grass fire; it was a bunch of plastic construction piping on fire. Crews surrounded the fire and kept it from moving into the wooded area and kept it contained to its site of origin. The only thing that was burned up was the pipe.”

He said the location presented a few challenges for firefighters.

“We had some issues with the hydrants being so far away getting water there,” he said. “We surrounded it, let it burn, kept the area (around it) cool and once it burned down, we were able to extinguish it.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

The fire put on somewhat of a dramatic show for the area with rising flames visible from across the railyard and billowing clouds of black smoke visible for miles around. For a time, the Utah Transit Authority suspended FrontRunner service between Ogden and Roy and employed a bus bridge due to the fire’s proximity to a viaduct utilized by the trains. Normal service returned within a couple of hours.

However, Slater said the fire was actually contained to a small area.

“It really wasn’t that big of a fire,” he said. “It was big because of all of the plastics that were burning, but it was a relatively small and contained to a small area.”

He said crews were on scene for around four hours dousing the fire and checking for hot spots. He added that no injuries were reported and there is no ongoing threat to the public.

Slater said the cause of the fire is under investigation and there isn’t a preliminary word on how it started.

Jim Konig, Standard-Examiner

“There was a construction crew on scene, but they were quite a ways away from the fire when it started,” he said. “It’s really unknown at this time what the cause was.”

According to a press release from the Ogden City Fire Department, responders included Riverdale Fire, Hill Air Force Fire and South Ogden Fire.