26.20 Fire protection devices.

(2) Spark arresters on locomotives. All road locomotives operated on any railroad shall be equipped with spark arresters that meet or exceed minimum performance and maintenance standards enumerated by the department. The superintendent of motive power or equivalent officer of each railway shall designate an employee of the railway at each railway division point and roundhouse who shall examine each locomotive and its spark arrester each time the locomotive leaves the railway division point or roundhouse and the designated employee and his or her employer shall each be held responsible for complying with this subsection.

(3) Locomotive inspector; powers. Any locomotive inspector designated by the department shall have the power to reject from service immediately any locomotive, donkey, traction, or portable engine which, in the opinion of the inspector, is deficient in adequate design, construction, or maintenance of the fire protective devices designated in sub. (2), and any such locomotive, donkey, traction, or portable engine so rejected from service shall not be returned to service until such defects have been remedied to the satisfaction of the locomotive inspector. In case of disagreement between the inspector and the owner of the locomotive, donkey, traction, or portable engine so rejected from service as to the efficiency or proper maintenance of said protective devices, then the owner of the locomotive, donkey, traction, or portable engine may appeal to the office of the commissioner of railroads for a decision of said matter, but pending such decision the locomotive, donkey, traction, or portable engine shall not be returned to service.

(4) Clearing right-of-way.

(a) Every corporation maintaining and operating a railway shall, at least once in each year, and within 10 days when requested by the department in writing, cut and burn or remove from its right-of-way all grass and weeds and burn or remove from its right-of-way all brush, logs, refuse material, and debris within a reasonable time, and whenever fires are set for such purpose, shall prevent the escape of the fire from the right-of-way. Upon failure of a railway corporation to comply with this paragraph, the department may do or contract for completion of the work and the corporation shall be liable to the state for all of the costs of the work.

(b) The department may periodically require every corporation operating a railway to remove combustible materials from designated right-of-way or portions of a right-of-way, and lands adjacent to the right-of-way. This paragraph shall not relieve any railway corporation from responsibility or liability for causing any damage along any right-of-way nor from the corporation's duty to comply with par. (a).

(5) Combustible deposits on track. No such corporation shall permit its employees to deposit fire, live coals, or ashes upon their tracks outside of the yard limits, except they be immediately extinguished.

(6) Reports and measures for prevention of fires.

(a) Conductors or individuals in charge of a train who discover that their train is causing fires along or adjacent to the right-of-way shall immediately report the fires to the nearest railway division point or district office. It shall be the duty of the railway dispatcher or appropriate railway management authority to immediately notify the local department office plus the sheriff of the county where any fire is located. The conductor or other individuals in charge of a train shall attempt to discover the cause of any fire. If any part of the train, including the locomotive, is believed to have caused the fire, efforts shall be made to rectify the part before the train returns to service.

(b) Any forest ranger, conservation warden, sheriff or other duly appointed authority may, in the performance of official duties, require any train causing fires or suspected of causing fires to stop within a safe distance from the fires to avoid further setting or spread of fire.

(7) Fire patrol. All corporations maintaining and operating a railway, during a dangerously dry season, and when so directed by the department, shall provide fire patrols for duty along their tracks. Whenever the department deems necessary it may order the corporations to provide for fire patrol personnel to follow each train throughout forest protection areas as may be necessary to prevent fires. When the department has given a corporation notice that in its opinion the conditions require a patrol after trains, the corporation shall immediately comply with the instructions throughout the areas designated. If the corporation fails to do so, the department may employ fire patrol personnel, and furnish them with the necessary equipment to patrol the rights-of-way of the corporations, and the expense of the patrols shall be charged to the corporation and may be recoverable in a civil action in the name of this state. In addition, the corporation is subject to the penalties under sub. (9). The corporation, acting independently of the department, shall patrol its rights-of-way after the passage of each train when necessary to prevent the spread of fires and use the highest degree of diligence to prevent the setting and spread of fires, and its officers and employees operating trains in this state shall use diligence in extinguishing fires set by locomotives or found existing upon their respective rights-of-way, and any negligence in this regard shall render the corporation or any officer or employee subject to the penalties under sub. (9). Every corporation affected by this section shall designate and register with the department an officer or some other person to be responsible for carrying out the corporation's responsibilities with the highest degree of diligence. If the officer or person fails in the duty, he or she shall forfeit not more than $500.

(8) Inspection and entry. The department may inspect or cause to be inspected any locomotive, donkey, or threshing engine, railway locomotive, and all other engines, boilers, and locomotives operated in, through or near forest, brush, or grass land and enter upon any property for such purpose, or where it deems it necessary in order to see that this section is duly complied with.

(9) Penalty.

(a) Any corporation, by its officers, agents, or employees, violating this section, shall forfeit not more than $500.

(b) Any corporation, by its officers, agents or employees, willfully violating this section shall be fined not more than $1,000.

(c) Any conductor, individual in charge of a train or officer, agent or employee of a railway who violates this section shall forfeit not more than $500.

(10) Appeal to office of the commissioner of railroads. In case the department and any person operating any locomotive, donkey, or threshing engine, or any engine, boiler, or locomotive cannot agree as to the most practicable device or devices for preventing the escape of sparks, cinders, or fire from smokestacks, ash pans or fire boxes, then the same shall be determined by the office of the commissioner of railroads.

(11) Exemption. The department may exempt from subs. (2), (3) and (4) any railroad, when, in its judgment, conditions along the right-of-way are such that the reduced fire hazard renders such protective devices unnecessary.

History: 1975 c. 365; 1977 c. 29 ss. 448b to 448t, 1654 (9) (f); 1977 c. 224; 1981 c. 347 s. 80 (2); 1983 a. 422 ss. 10, 15; 1993 a. 16, 123, 490.