Rowena Fire Lawsuit Against Union Pacific: Damages and Cold Springs

Two Rowena residents have sued Union Pacific in federal court, alleging that sparks from one of the railroad’s freight trains ignited the June 2025 wildfire that destroyed 56 homes in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge. The Union Pacific Rowena Fire lawsuit was filed on June 23, 2025, in U.S. District Court in Portland by Ramon Garza Nino and Maria Carrera, and it has since grown to include dozens of additional plaintiffs and a second fire in Umatilla County.¹ Union Pacific denies its train started the fire, and the Oregon Department of Forestry’s official cause investigation is still open.

What the Complaint Alleges

The fire broke out around 1:30 p.m. on June 11, 2025, on land next to Union Pacific tracks and Interstate 84, about 1.5 miles west of Rowena.²³⁴

The negligence claims are specific. The plaintiffs say Union Pacific failed to keep the area around its tracks clear of flammable material, failed to properly inspect, repair, and maintain the train, failed to operate brake systems in a way that would prevent sparking, and failed to implement adequate emergency response measures.⁵ The complaint also alleges the railroad operated through the area despite National Weather Service red flag warnings that were in effect that day.³

Oregon Department of Forestry investigators have publicly confirmed the fire was “human-caused,” meaning natural sources such as lightning were ruled out. They have asked the public for eyewitness accounts, photos, or video from around the time of ignition.⁶ The agency has not identified a specific ignition source.

Damages the Plaintiffs Are Seeking

The suit seeks monetary damages for property loss, emotional distress, lost wages, and evacuation costs. It also invokes Oregon’s double-damages provision for wildfires. Under ORS 477.089, a court can award twice the amount of economic and property damages when a wildfire results from recklessness, gross negligence, willfulness, or malice.⁷ A spokesperson for the plaintiffs’ legal team said the specific dollar amount will be determined at trial.¹

How the Case Has Grown

Gerald Singleton of Singleton Schreiber, who represents the initial plaintiffs, estimated at the outset that 100 to 150 cases could eventually be filed.⁸ By late July 2025, about 40 additional residents had joined the case.⁵ No class has been certified.

The Cold Springs Fire Adds to the Litigation

On July 2, 2025, a second fire broke out in Umatilla County, about seven miles from Hermiston, on Union Pacific’s Ayer Subdivision. The Cold Springs Fire burned more than 2,400 acres, displaced residents, and destroyed at least one home along with other structures.⁹ Singleton Schreiber then filed a combined complaint covering both fires on behalf of 49 plaintiffs, including individuals, businesses, homeowners, and renters. Named Cold Springs plaintiffs include Patricia Edmunds and the Lloyd family.

The Cold Springs allegations push beyond negligence. Witnesses reported at least six separate fire starts in the area, and the plaintiffs say video footage shows a Union Pacific train sparking multiple wildfires a quarter mile from victims’ property at the time of ignition. The expanded complaint adds intentional-tort claims: battery, intentional trespass, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Those counts rest on the allegation that Union Pacific kept operating trains it knew were sparking fires despite the heightened wildfire conditions.⁹

The Hinkle Rail Yard Backstory

The Cold Springs complaint also points to Union Pacific’s Hinkle Rail Yard in Hermiston, alleging that reduced operations there and insufficient train and track maintenance “contributed directly to these devastating fires.”⁹ Starting in October 2018, Union Pacific cut nearly 200 positions at Hinkle and closed its supply warehouse and mechanical locomotive shop as part of a company-wide efficiency strategy called Unified Plan 2020.¹⁰

At the time, Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley wrote to Union Pacific’s CEO that closing the mechanical locomotive shop would “reduce oversight inspection of trains carrying hazardous loads through rural Oregon communities.”¹⁰ Employees told reporters that five workers per shift were being asked to do what nine had previously handled.¹¹ Union Pacific said at the time that safety remained its top priority and denied that the changes would reduce maintenance quality.

Union Pacific’s Response

The company has publicly denied causing the Rowena Fire. In a statement responding to the initial lawsuit, a Union Pacific spokesperson said: “After conducting its own extensive investigation, Union Pacific has found no evidence to date that our train caused the Rowena Fire.”¹² The company added that no official cause had been released and that it was “fully cooperating with state investigators.”⁸

Singleton has said his firm will pursue Union Pacific’s maintenance records and internal communications through discovery to try to substantiate the plaintiffs’ claims.⁸ The Oregon Department of Forestry’s investigation, which carries the official mandate to determine the fire’s cause, could take months or years to conclude.

How Oregon Law Applies

Oregon has a specific statutory framework for wildfire liability. Under ORS 477.695, railroads are required to remove flammable material from their rights-of-way. Under ORS 477.092, a person or entity is liable for wildfire-related property damage only if their action or inaction was negligent or worse and contributed to the cause or spread of the fire.⁷

Damages are tiered. Ordinary negligence limits liability to actual damages. Recklessness, gross negligence, willfulness, or malice opens the door to double economic and property damages under ORS 477.089, which is the provision the Rowena plaintiffs are invoking. The state can also independently recover its firefighting costs, with interest at 10 percent per year, through a civil action or a lien on the responsible party’s property.⁷

Prior Train-Caused Fires in the Region

Lawsuits blaming railroads for wildfires are less common than the high-profile cases against electrical utilities such as PacifiCorp and Pacific Gas and Electric, but they are not unprecedented.⁸ Railroad-caused fires are typically attributed to improperly maintained turbochargers that eject red-hot carbon particles, or to locked, superheated brakes that shower the surrounding area with hot metal.¹³

The most relevant regional precedent is the 2023 Tunnel 5 Fire in Skamania County, Washington. The state Department of Natural Resources attributed that fire, which burned more than 500 acres and destroyed 10 structures, to BNSF Railway track maintenance operations. Investigators found that BNSF had ignited two other fires in the same area the week before Tunnel 5 and had used an older, non-turbocharged engine with a known higher tendency to emit fire-starting carbon particles.¹⁴ The U.S. Forest Service also sued Union Pacific over a 2002 wildfire in Price Canyon, Utah, seeking over $650,000 in suppression and rehabilitation costs.¹³

The Rowena and Cold Springs cases remain in their early stages. No official cause has been released for either fire, no class has been certified, and Union Pacific continues to deny that its trains were responsible. Where the case goes will depend largely on what discovery and the Oregon Department of Forestry’s investigation reveal.

1
Statesman Journal. Rowena Fire Oregon Lawsuit Union Pacific
2
Columbia Insight. Rowena Fire Claims Historic House, Causes Evacuation of Animal Shelter
3
Columbia Community Connection. Rowena Fire Prompts Legal Action, Suit Singles Out Union Pacific
4
Elkhorn Media Group. Lawsuit Alleges Rowena Fire Started by Train
5
Singleton Schreiber. Crews Nearly Finished With First Phase of Rowena Fire Cleanup, Lawsuit Continues
6
KATU. Oregon Forestry Investigators Ask for Your Help in Finding Cause of Rowena Fire
7
Oregon State Legislature. ORS Chapter 477 – Fire Protection of Forests
8
OPB. Union Pacific Railroad Rowena Fire Lawsuit
9
Singleton Schreiber. Union Pacific Faces Lawsuit Following Devastating Rowena and Cold Springs Wildfires in Oregon
10
Office of Senator Merkley. Oregon Senators Respond to Hinkle Closure
11
SMART Local 528. Union Pacific Layoffs at Hinkle Yard in Hermiston Draw Safety Concerns
12
KOIN. Rowena Fire Lawsuit Union Pacific Claim Train Started Wildfire
13
Wildfire Today. USFS Sues Railroad for Starting Fire
14
Columbia Insight. Investigation Finds BNSF Railway at Fault for Tunnel 5 Fire