The News and Tribune - Ky. firefighters try to put out blaze on unused Big Four bridge

Mon, May 12 2008

Published: May 07, 2008 01:50 pm

Ky. firefighters try to put out blaze on unused Big Four bridge

The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE — Firefighters are at the scene of a blaze on the Big Four Bridge on the Ohio River.

Louisville fire officials and Waterfront Development Corp. officials tell The Courier-Journal that they don’t know the extent of the fire, which broke out shortly after noon.

The railroad bridge is being turned into a pedestrian walkway connecting Louisville and southern Indiana. The span was completed in 1895 and abandoned in 1969, when the approaches in Louisville and Jeffersonville, Ind., were taken down.

Louisville firefighters climbed an 80-foot aerial ladder at the southern end of the bridge to fight the fire, and some Jeffersonville firefighters got on the bridge to assist.

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.

Photos

Thick smoke drifts to Jeffersonville from a fire on the Big Four bridge Wedensday afternoon. Staff photo by C.E. Branham None/ (Click for larger image)

Josiah Allen's rock throwing into the Ohio River on Wednesday afternoon was not bothered by the fire on the Big Four bridge. Staff photo by C.E. Branham None/ (Click for larger image)

Thick smoke drifts to Jeffersonville from a fire on the Big Four bridge Wedensday afternoon. Staff photo by C.E. Branham None/ (Click for larger image)