Firefighters Battle Blaze in Rail Tunnel : Tunnel Fire Disrupts Rail Service to S.F.

Fighting intense heat and thick smoke, more than 100 firemen from the Southern Pacific railroad battled today to put out a fire in a tunnel north of San Luis Obispo that has interrupted all coastal train services between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.

“Our men have been fighting the fire back foot by foot, but it’s an exhausting job,” Southern Pacific spokesman Gerry Parra said in San Francisco. The fire, which has been raging since midnight Wednesday, is estimated to be burning at “between 1,500 and 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit deep into the tunnel,” Parra said.

He said that the men, working in teams of six to eight, have penetrated about 300 feet from each end of the tunnel but that “no one can stay in there for long.” Temperatures at the tunnel ends are about 115 degrees, he said.

Firefighters have so far pumped more than half a million gallons of water into the flames at Tunnel No. 7 on Cuesta Grade, 15 miles north of San Luis Obispo. Water has to be taken to the site in three railroad tank cars.

The teams are also using two giant fans to blow and suck the heat and smoke out of the tunnel, and to make the fire burn itself out more quickly.

Firefighters said that with the all-out attack, the blaze might burn itself out by tonight.

In Los Angeles, Southern Pacific spokesman John Tierney said that “with luck,” the tunnel might be back in service by the middle of next week.

Meanwhile, passengers who had booked to take the Amtrak train services up the coast were being taken to their destinations by about 30 buses chartered by Amtrak, said Tony Mastrangelo, Amtrak manager of stations, in Los Angeles.

While the tunnel is closed, there is no Amtrak service up the coastal route. To points between Los Angeles and Oakland, passengers are being bused. Those traveling between Los Angeles and points north of Oakland are being bused between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, then taking the scheduled Bakersfield-Oakland train.

“We’re using nine buses each way for the coastal run because our one train a day each way normally carries between 400 and 500 passengers,” Mastrangelo said. “Then we’re using five buses each way between Los Angeles and Bakersfield.”

“People have taken it very well,” he said.