FOTR Coach Fire

[John Ashworth]

Breaking news: Three FOTR main line coaches caught fire this afternoon at Hermanstad. Early reports suggest that men in yellow jackets were burning grass outside our fence and the fire spread. Although we do have fire breaks around our vehicles, somehow it jumped to the coaches at the western end of the site. Our caretaker spotted it. The fire brigade attended and extinguished the fire, but not before it had destroyed 2 1/2 coaches. Robert is at the site now assessing the situation and liaising with the fire brigade. The only saving grace is that these were scrap coaches that were not a priority for restoration and were not special, but still it is a dreadful shame that they have gone up in smoke.

[Steve Appleton]

Shucks, I went cold reading this. As if FOTR has not had enough to deal with of late. As if we had a loss of life in the family.

I had hoped that, in time, we could have re-purposed and re-used those coaches in some productive way. Probably not possible now. Just shows how, at this time of year with the tinder-dry conditions, how quickly grass and veld fires get out of control.

We need to be extremely careful with our revenue-earning veteran coaches. We cannot afford to loose them, ever.

[Derek Walker]

I too went cold when I read that because loosing those subs would be a disaster.

[Dylan Knott]

This is truly a shock! Clearly it is not FOTR's fault and so someone else must be held accountable for this disaster!
Can you please post some photos here?

[Gabor Kovacs]

Horrified is the cleanest word that I can use here on this forum . . . . . . . . . .

I hope some sort of charge, of arson, has been registered with SAPS. The investigating officer must be crystal clearly informed that arrests are expected and need to be seen happening very soon (before the end of the week), the persons properly charged and taken to court when the court system allows. . . . . . . .

If we are not seen to be serious about this, then the rest is up to your imagination . . . . . . .

[Stefan Andrzejewski]

First 3117 , now this. It is really tragic. All that time and effort by so few gone up in smoke. Sorry to hear about it.

[John Ashworth]

Yesterday afternoon at around 3pm, I received a call from the owner of a factory opposite our site to say that two of our coaches were burning. I thought it was a practical joke and he said no... he said the fire brigade was called.

I contacted Robert Dadford, and he went over immediately. Meanwhile, I managed to establish cell contact with Angela, the lady looking after the site in the day whilst Clements is away, who had run to the café to get airtime, and she told me that during the day, there were workers in blue overalls working outside our compound and they apparently set fire to the long grass outside our compound. This caught and spread like wildfire, and must have down draughted towards the coaches stabled on the spare line, setting them on fire. By the time the fire brigade arrived, two and a half coaches were destroyed.

To put you at ease, these were NOT our regular operating stock, but the coaches parked on the line where the class 24 and 15F are stored. We were fortunate that it was contained in time and that we had no further damage...

I will be going down with Robert today sometime, to make a statement at the SAPS so we have it on record, aswell as contacting our insurers.

One blessing on our side is we have proven we have taken some form of fire prevention, by keeping our site tidy and trimmed of excess grass. The other small factor is that we have fire extinguishers placed at strategic places in the compound, but yes, they would not have been much use for such a major event.

Now we wait and see what is next in this year of surprises as we continue in the year of anniversaries and events!

No personal injuries in this instance and a great thanks to Angela and Robert.

And the fire started again at 6am. Angela and Welcome fought it with extinguishers and water!

[John Ashworth]

Robert Dadford and I went down to the site and also met up with Eric Samuels. We walked around with Angela and examined the scene. There was a westerly wind blowing, as Robert said it was the day before, and we walked out of the rear track gate by the running line. The fire was definitely started from the Western end, although where exactly is difficult to determine. The whole area in front of the track laying guys is burnt clean and the small corrugated shed we are after is now nice and exposed. There is no damage to the two tenders in the cutting.

One can see that with a great fire and accompanying wind from the west, the flames fanned and this caused the coach to burn out. The first sitter coach is gutted with lots of molten aluminium drippings all over. The second coach that is three quarter burnt is the third class sleeper, and that is gutted except for the eastern end. There was no sign of any vagrants having started any fires in the coaches and in any case, the fire would not have spread to the west due to the wind.

Francoise was there as well and we have arranged with Eric to oversee the clean up operation. We will start removing all damaged metal etc fittings from both coaches and store for scrap near the office area. Once completed and other necessary fittings removed, we will arrange to shunt out the two damaged coaches to the line where our tenders are kept and... arrange that they be scrapped.

Right, now we also laid a charge at the Hercules Police station REF:.... Robert and I went there.

Angelo says that while we were there laying the charge, she reckons the same sort of workers, dressed in blue work two piece overalls with green reflective striping, were in the same area and it looks like they may have been city council electricity dept guys, as they had a white small truck with a high up persons platform lift thing on it. She could not say it was the same people, but the dress code was very similar.

I have also contacted our insurers, and he will want to meet at Hermanstad on next Tuesday at around noon to discuss future site and vehicle insurances. This will cover damage to motor vehicles and our coaches. Is anyone available to meet with him?

That is the update from here except we need to get the fire extinguishers recharged...

That is the report.

We've since received notice from the South African Police Service of the name and contact details of the officer who will investigate our case.

NB: Contrary to earlier reports, it seems that only two coaches were destroyed.

[ch.janssen-schmidt]

Such a shame, I could hardly believe it when I read this.

Hang in there guys!

Regards
Charles

[Derek Walker]

I am sure the police will be on the look out for a "high up persons platform lift thing". Lol, that is such a great description!

[Dylan Knott]

A cherry picker or snorkel are what they are called down here.

[HenryLazenby]

Eish my dear friends. Albeit a bit late, I am shocked...

The Universe surely is not making our job easy...

:-(