Town takes railroad company to court again
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

In April, crews a variety of area fire departments worked tr attempt to extinguish Railroad ties that were burning from a brush fire that spanned from Westminster into Fitchburg along the train tracks. Westminster Fire Department is now trying to recoup their expense by bring the rail road company to court. FILE PHOTO

The town will be headed to court in the new year to try to recoup the money they have spent putting out brush fires along the railroad tracks during the last year.

Fire Chief Brenton MacAloney and the members of the Board of Selectmen decided to file the lawsuit against Pan Am Rail Company - formerly Guilford Rail Company - after the department spent the spring battling a string of fires. This will be the second time the town has taken the company to Worcester Superior Court to recoup the costs.

"If you can't get the behavior to change this is one way of doing it," MacAloney said.

Over the course of the last two years the town has spent about $21,000 fighting forest fires, including one fire that cost approximately $11,000 in manpower, equipment and supplies this spring, said MacAloney. The department can charge a cost for the running of the equipment at incidents like these.

"We sent them three bills timed apart, we got no response," he said. "We have enough money outstanding now behooves us to go to court."

The fire, which started on Monday, April 23, encompassed more than 65 acres of brush off Turnpike Road and spread into Fitchburg. There were nearly 100 firefighters from 30 communities on scene, MacAloney said at the time. The $11,000 in costs represents only Westminster's share of the associated costs, because they can't retrieve costs for other departments.

MacAloney said the state law provides for this recourse, when it states: "Any railroad corporation which, by its servants or agents, negligently, or in violation of law, sets fire to grass lands or forest lands shall be liable to any city or town where such fire occurs, for the reasonable and lawful expense incurred by such city or town in the extinguishment of the fire."

The law states cities and towns can go to superior court to recover this money.

MacAloney said the company doesn't take the steps to prevent the fires such as make small alterations to the train to prevent sparks and not traveling on "red flag" days when the chance of brush and forest fires is very high.

"It's predictable and because it's predictable ... then they choose to start fires as far as I'm concern. … The railroad does not seem to want to fix the reason why the fires start."

MacAloney said he has asked the company not to let the trains drive on ride flag days but they have said they are not under local jurisdiction but instead covered under the federal interstate commerce bills.

"I don't think when interstate commerce was created I don't think that public safety was cast to the wind," MacAloney said.

The town sued the rail company - then named Springfield Terminal Railway Company - in the winter of 2006 for fires that occurred in 2005. The case was fast tracked through the court system and a settlement was reached between the two parties.

The town received approximately $7,000 - about half of what they were seeking - for the reimbursement of the costs. The money went into the town's general fund.