Fire damages ore dock in Superior

• BNSF Ore Docks on Allouez Bay, Superior

BNSF's former GN and NP ore docks both past and present. The dock at the bottom of the photo in the former NP ore dock, long since out of service. Next are the former GN docks currently inactive. And the silo dock at the top is currently the only pellet loading ship facility used by the BNSF. Photo by Scott Carney. (From website: http://duluthsuperior.railfan.net/railroad_yards_of_the_twin_ports.htm)

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SUPERIOR - Authorities in Superior say it will cost $20,000 to fix part of an industrial conveyor built that burned in a weekend blaze.

Fire-fighters overcame problems with water supplies to extinguish the blaze late Saturday night at the Allouez Taconite Facility on an ore dock in Superior. Fire Battalion Chief Scott Gordon said it was hard to gain access to the burning conveyor belt, because it was located 40-feet above the ground. The nearest hydrant was almost a-third of a mile away, and Gordon said it did not put out enough water. So fire-fighters used water trucks to round up water from nearby communities and the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad.

Gordon said the blaze looked like a “fireball in the sky” because of its high location. The conveyor belt is about two miles long, and Gordon said about 200-feet of it was damaged. No one was hurt in the blaze.

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