OTTUMWA — A phone call in the middle of the night felt like a bad dream to Kim Hellige — the historic Wabash Railroad Bridge was in flames.

Hellige, president of the Wapello County Trails Council, received the call from Ottumwa police around 11:55 p.m. Wednesday. The fire on the bridge took firefighters in a rescue boat and on land more than two hours to extinguish.

Though Hellige said she first suspected the fire was intentionally set, early Thursday morning she told the Courier she’s going to reserve judgment until investigators know more.

“I just don’t want to jump to any conclusions,” she said.

An investigation is continuing to determine what happened, and is now being lead by Lt. Tom McAndrew at the Ottumwa Police Department.

“There is a camera on the bridge,” said McAndrew Thursday afternoon, “so we’ve got great video. I’ve watched about two minutes of it, and can see people on the bridge. We’ll be using that to identify them.”

In a statement, the city of Ottumwa said that anyone who walked on or near the bridge Wednesday night should call McAndrew. Even if they didn’t see anything, that fact could help investigators develop a timeline. Police said such calls will make their job easier.

“Otherwise, we have to go through the trouble of identifying one individual at a time. If they just call and say, ‘Hey, I was on the bridge,’ it could really help,” said McAndrew.

As for now, though, he said he’ll be in his office going through hours of tape.

Wabash Bridge has been closed to all pedestrians and cyclists until repairs can be made. The bridge, formerly part of the Wabash Railroad, had recently been renovated as part of the trails system.

“We raised funds locally,” Hellige said, “and [a lot of] things were donated, money and volunteer labor.”

Though the effort was spearheaded by Larry Cofer, she said, the bridge across the Des Moines River has the potential to touch everyone in the community in a positive way.

“The trails council will have to meet and see what course of action to take. I can’t speak for the council, but our goal, of course, would be to remove the damaged section and repair the bridge. We’ll do what we can to repair that as quickly as possible because it has been such an asset. We’ve heard nothing but positive things.”

Reporter Mark Newman can be reached at 683-5358 or by e-mail at mgnewman@mchsi.com.