Re: How Prevalent Were Locomotive-Caused Fires

An interesting story, in 1915 the Harrisville Extension of the Ogden, Logan & Idaho railroad was the only steam-powered portion of the electric railroad. On July Fourth the tiny Baldwin 0-4-2 steam "dummy" started a fire at the farm of Charles Taylor and interupted Plain City's Independence Day baseball game as the teams fought the fire on the barn. At the end of the day the only thing saved was the farmhouse, not even the prize-winning pigs.

Needless to say, within a year the branch was electrified and the dummy engine became, well, a dummy engine, behind the Utah-Idaho Central shops in Ogden.