Fire rendered a train trestle just north of downtown Gilroy
badly burned but still intact.
Fire rendered a train trestle just north of downtown Gilroy badly burned but still intact.
AT 2:22 p.m. Sunday, the blaze blackened the trestle, running parallel to Monterey Street over a drainage ditch across from Howson Street, between Leavesley Road and First Street, said Battalion Chief Phil King. The cause of the fire is still unknown, he said.
“The fire charred it pretty good,” he said of the old wooden trestle.
The fire blackened the entire, 50-foot trestle along with another quarter-acre of grass lining the drainage ditch below, King said. Despite superficial damage, a railroad engineer who inspected the scene determined that the trestle was still structurally sound.
The fire, which sent black smoke billowing into the air, added to the haze created by the Lockheed wildfire burning in Bonny Doon.
The Gilroy Fire Department responded to the blaze with two engines, a rescue vehicle and a battalion chief. An engine and battalion chief from the South Santa Clara County Fire District also responded.
