A train carrying the Easter Bunny in northwestern New Jersey has ignited several small brush fires.
The Express-Times newspaper in Easton, Pennsylvania, reports the fires occurred Saturday in Pohatcong Township and Phillipsburg. No major property damage is reported. A firefighter from the New Jersey state forest fire service fell and dislocated his hip. He was taken to St. Luke's Hospital in Phillipsburg, according to Huntington Volunteer Fire Co. fire chief Peter Pursell.
Huntington Volunteer Fire Company Chief Peter Pursell tells the newspaper the diesel engine-pulled train was carrying hundreds of people and had dead leaves in its smokestack.
The leaves caught on fire and blew onto brush along the tracks. They ignited eight fires along a 2-mile stretch of tracks in Pohatcong. It's unknown how many fires occurred in Phillipsburg.
The 11 a.m. train was temporarily shut down while the fires were brought under control.
As the photos show, a few hundred people waiting to board the next Easter Bunny train at 12:30 p.m. had to wait more than two hours.
"It was more of a nuisance," Pursell said to Express-Times.
Firefighters from Harmony, Lopatcong and Greenwich townships and Alpha helped fight the brush fire flames as well as the the forest fires service, Pursell told Express-Times.
