The one-alarm blaze heavily damaged several hundred feet of the structure spanning Villa Road

Crews from Newberg and Dundee responded to a one-alarm fire that heavily damaged a train trestle spanning Villa Road early Sunday morning.

Nearly a dozen crews were dispatched at about 3 a.m. June 29 to the wooden and steel trestle that spans Villa Road just north of Carol Ann Drive, according Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, the lead responder on the call with support from the Dundee Fire Department.

“When crews arrived, they encountered heavy fire burning through the elevated structure and spreading to nearby vegetation, dangerously close to an adjacent apartment complex,” the agency said.

Several hundred feet of the west end of the trestle, owned by Willamette & Pacific Railroad and largely inactive, was fully engulfed in flame and was threatening the nearby Chehalem Pointe Apartment complex when crews arrived.

Stefan Myers, public information officer at TVF&R, reported that the 12 fire crews responding took a dual approach to combating the blaze: one group of crews concentrated on “surrounding and drowning” the fire on the highly flammable structure constructed of wood treated with kreosote, while the other group’s primary goal was to protect the apartment complex.

“Due to the potential for the fire to extend to homes and apartments, crews launched an aggressive firefighting operation,” the release said. “A task force of firefighters from both agencies worked through the early morning hours to stop the fire’s advance. Their swift and coordinated efforts kept the flames from reaching occupied buildings and avoided the need for evacuations.”

Police personnel were called on to alert some dwellers in the apartment complex, but an evacuation was avoided.

There were no injuries to the roughly 40 fire personnel that responded to the fire. Damage to surrounding vegetation was limited, but the trestle was not so lucky.

“The trestle … sustained significant damage and will be assessed by the property owner and transportation officials,” the release said.

TVF&R investigators were dispatched to the site on Sunday morning to investigate the cause of the fire, but no determination had been made by press time Monday morning, June 30.

Myers added that his agency has reached out to Willamette & Pacific Railroad officials with hopes they can bring in structural engineers to determine if the trestle is salvageable or must be razed and rebuilt. The portion of the structure directly above Villa Road is steel and fared much better in the fire.