Re: D&S RR blamed for wildfire near Durango -fire costs

1)The use of misting rings halved the number of fires along the line. Riders in the first gondola don't comment on the ugliness of the ring. Rather they comment, if at all, at just how dirty their hair gets from that constant mist with its fine ash. [My advice is to ride in the last "gon"]

2) The Forest Service requires the DSNG to pay the full cost of fighting of any fire which is caused by the RR and spreads onto forest service land. I think the last time the RR was billed was with the Mitchell Lake fire. I believe the original bill to RR was $750,000. Final settlement was for about half that. An immediate consequence of that case was the bulldozing of fire lanes on each side of the track in that area.
The cost could be in the millions. No wonder the RR was so vigilant this last summer. Think what could happen.

3) Legal Wilderness designation means that no power tools can be used to fight a fire burning in the Wilderness. Hence, the Teft Spur fire had to be fought without such. Furthermore, not just anyone can fight such a fire. Forest Service people do it. So, with Teft Spur, a FS crew had to come up. That fire was not billed to the RR, because the final designation of the cause of the fire was "undetermined origin".

4) An amusing footnote is that dynamite is not a power tool and can be used in a wilderness. That was the case in the wilderness above Pagosa Springs. I suspect someone, somewhere, has become aware of this omission in the bill and is working diligently to correct it.