JAMESTOWN — The Jamestown Fire Department responded Wednesday morning, Aug. 31, to a BNSF Railway coal car that was smoldering in Jamestown, according to Grant Christianson, fire inspection officer for the department.

Five units and 23 firefighters responded to the 800 block of 1st Street West at about 5 a.m.

Christianson said the cause of the coal smoldering could be from a bad wheel bearing on the coal car that created heat and rose up.

"That's what we are assuming, but nobody knows," he said.

Christianson said the Jamestown Fire Department is waiting for BNSF to move the coal car to a workable location so it is not close to live railroad tracks. He said BNSF needs to use its own equipment to get the smoldering coal out of the coal car.

"Then we will come over with a truck and a couple of us and extinguish whatever is left," he said.

Firefighters were on scene for about two hours.