Sparks from train ignite Mass. brush fires

By Derek Gentile
The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts)

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Firefighters from several communities were called out yesterday afternoon to battle more than a dozen small to medium-size brush fires that sprung up along the railroad tracks that run north to south through the center of Great Barrington and Housatonic.

The fires were caused by sparks emitted from the wheels of a train on tracks owned by Housatonic Railroad Co., according to police. There were no injuries. There also were reports of small fires kindled along the railroad tracks farther north into Pittsfield.

A representative from the railroad company could not be reached for comment, but according to several firefighters at various scenes, the sparks kindled the extremely dry vegetation that grows along the tracks.

Firefighters spent about 21/2 hours racing up and down the tracks yesterday afternoon, putting out fires. The blaze rekindled at about 4:15 yesterday afternoon on the tracks that run along Route 41, but was extinguished within minutes.

Firefighters from Great Barrington, Alford, Egremont, Monterey, Lenox and Stockbridge were called to fight the blaze, according to firefighters.

Early in the afternoon, there were dozens of small fires along the tracks, and the smoke from these blazes was visible from Main Street.

There was a particularly large fire percolating behind Martin's Restaurant, located at the top of Railroad Street. Although there was no real chance of the fire spreading to his restaurant, owner Martin Lewis organized a "bucket brigade" of his employees and some patrons. The group of about a half-dozen people filled plastic buckets with water and worked to douse the fire, or at least to keep it from spreading.

Lewis said later that he was not worried about the fire spreading to his restaurant, which was across the railroad tracks from the blaze, but about the fire spreading to the residential area to the west of the tracks.

"I just didn't want it to get back there, near those homes," he said.

A few minutes after the bucket brigade began, a truck from the Egremont Fire Department arrived on the scene, and firemen from the department quickly put out the fire.