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Rail line shut after fire sparks explosion fear

by Carl Marsden
30/ 4/2008

RAIL commuters suffered major disruption when a section of the Oldham-Rochdale line had to be closed after a suspected arson attack.

Fire crews raised the alarm after discovering two highly explosive acetylene cylinders while attending a fire at the Taylor Orme Engineering scrapyard in Meek Street, Higginshaw, at around 9pm on Sunday.

They called police to the scene after finding the canisters as they extinguished the blaze within a small compound in which two mini-buses, a canoe and a large quantity of building materials had all been badly damaged.

Firefighters immediately set up a 200-metre safety cordon around the site while they attempted to cool the cylinders with water and – although there are no homes nearby – the railway line between Oldham Mumps and Shaw then had to be shut following discussions with Railtrack. Temporary road closures were also put in place. A replacement bus service was set up by Northern Rail and the line had to remain closed until the cylinders had completely cooled late on Monday night.

A team of specialists from BOC Gas also attended to assess whether the canisters could be safely removed.

The Greater Manchester Fire service and police have launched a joint probe to establish the cause of the blaze and determine if it was started deliberately.

Mark Beswick, watch commander at Oldham, said: "The acetylene cylinders are potentially explosive when heated so there was a genuine, serious danger and risk to the public.

"We could not move the cylinders and so we had to manage the situation by watering them down in an attempt to cool them. That takes around 25 hours and has therefore obviously caused major disruption."

A spokesman for Network Rail said: "The emergency services advised us to close the line because of the nature of the fire and because the railway was in the exclusion zone."

Anyone with information about the fire is asked to contact Oldham CID on 0161 856 8951.