Brush Fires Along RR Tracks Contained In Rockland County

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY — Nearly two dozen fires broke out from Congers to Stony Point within minutes of each other Friday afternoon, Rockland County officials said.

The brush fires along the railroad tracks brought firefighters from many local departments to Haverstraw and Stony Point. Preliminary reports indicated that sparks by a CSX train started the fires, county officials said.

Soot and embers landed in yards near the railroad tracks, black smoke was visible for miles, and Highway 304 was closed for several hours. A handful of homes were damaged, county officials reported. Three firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion as temperatures hovered near 90 degrees in the afternoon. No injuries were reported among residents.

Everyone was asked to avoid the area of East Main Street in Stony Point. Jenkins Avenue residents were temporarily evacuated, then allowed to return to their homes, Stony Point police said on Facebook.

As of 5:45 p.m., three-quarters of the fires were under control and the focus turned to extinguishing flames on the Tilcon Quarry with water buckets, county officials said.

Train operations were halted for several hours.

Rep. Mike Lawler, who was in Nashville Friday speaking at a retreat for donors to the Republican Party, according to Politico, issued a statement.

"I was just on a virtual meeting with CSX officials and local elected officials this morning where we discussed the threat of brush fires along their rail line, among other topics," he said. "I expect CSX to cooperate fully with an investigation into how this incident occurred. We need to get to the bottom of this and fully understand what happened, and work to prevent it from ever occurring again."

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