UPDATE: 500 stranded aboard Easter train, hundreds others delayed after brush fires along railroad tracks

Several brush fires were ignited today as a train carrying the Easter Bunny made its way on an excursion through Phillipsburg and Pohatcong Township.

The diesel engine-pulled train carrying hundreds of people had dead leaves in the smokestack, which caught on fire around 11:30 a.m. and blew onto brush along the tracks, according to Peter Pursell, fire chief of Huntington Volunteer Fire Co. in Pohatcong Township.

The burning leaves ignited eight fires along a two-mile stretch of tracks in Pohatcong Township, Pursell said. He wasn't sure how many fires started in Phillipsburg.

Pursell called for the train to be shut down until the fires were brought under control around 1:45 p.m.

"When I have guys in vehicles that close to the tracks, we hold the train," he said.

He gave permission for the train to start again at 1:50 p.m., although it stopped at the Phillipsburg border as firefighters continued to battle brush fires in the town.

A few hundred people expecting to catch the 12:30 p.m. train were still waiting more than two hours later when the 11 a.m. train failed to finish its run. Patrons had little information as to when the train would arrive.

Manny Vito of Monmouth County arrived at noon with his wife, daughter and son for the 12:30 p.m. train.

"We just don't know what's going on. I don't know if anyone truly does," Vito said, adding he planned to keep waiting.

"If it's not too long, yeah. We stuck it out this long," he said. If they had to wait outside for hours, at least they picked a beautiful day, he said.

Mike Naumov of Hawthorne, N.J., also arrived at noon with wife, son and nephew.

"They're trying to find anything to do to entertain themselves," he said as the kids threw pebbles across the tracks.

"At least we're outside and can move around. It sure beats being cooped up in that train for three hours," Naumov said.

Pursell said the first fire started around Sndyers Road along the river as the train made its way back to Phillipsburg. No property was damaged, although the fire got near one home at Carpentersville Road near River Road.

"It was more of a nuisance," Pursell said of the series of fires.

One firefighter from the New Jersey state forest fire service fell and suffered a dislocated hip. He was taken to St. Luke's Hospital in Phillipsburg, Pursell said.

In addition to the forest fires service, firefighters from Harmony, Lopatcong and Greenwich townships and Alpha helped fight the Pohatcong Township fires, Pursell said.