CONGERS – A brush fire that scorched 78 acres last week from Stony Point to Congers is believed to have been started by a spark in the undercarriage of a CSX freight train, according to Rockland County officials.
That fire resulted in damage to private property along the way and State Senator Bill Weber (R, Nanuet) has introduced legislation that would help those owners in the future should something like this occur in the future.
“It’s going to require train companies to make homeowners, businesses, property owners, and local municipalities whole, meaning any damages that they caused, any fires like that, that happen in the future, we want to make sure that everybody becomes whole and doesn’t have to lose out on the monies that they have expended to deal with what we understand to be something the train company would have caused,” he said.
The legislation would also up fines in instances like last week’s to as much as $25,000 to $250,000.
