Aportion of a Union Pacific train northbound through Kenosha County caught fire and had to be stopped in the Village of Somers to extinguish the blaze Saturday morning.
Firefighters and emergency personnel responded to the incident around 10:40 a.m. as reports of a fire in the train’s caboose were radioed from the train operator in the Village of Pleasant Prairie.
The train was northbound on the Union Pacific tracks and stopped with the caboose around Highway L, west of Green Bay Road, in Somers, said the village’s Fire Chief Ben Andersen. He said fire was showing through the exhaust stack.
Fire crews extinguished the blaze in about 5 minutes, Andersen said, and “easily shut off the fuel.” The cause of the fire is believed to be mechanical in nature. The train did not derail and no other cars were damaged in the fire. There was not an immediate estimate of damage.