More than 600 acres were burning and containment was just 5% Wednesday evening when Union Pacific sent a fire train from Sparks, Nevada, to the Floriston Fire near Donner Pass.
The blaze broke out before 11 a.m. about nine miles northeast of Truckee, California, beside UP’s main line, prompting crews to attack flames along the right-of-way.
One locomotive hauled three water tank cars and a platform car fitted with hoses and water cannons, allowing crews to douse the landscape from the tracks.
Freight and passenger trains kept running normally during the response, marking the second time in a month UP has deployed a fire train from Sparks after last month’s Hawk Fire.