If a train starts a fire that damages or destroys someone's property, the railroad company that owns or runs that train has to pay for the damage. The railroad company is also allowed to buy insurance to cover itself against those costs.
537.380. Fires from railroad engines — . — Each owning or operating a railroad in this state shall be responsible in damages to every person and whose property may be injured or destroyed by fire communicated directly or indirectly by locomotive engines in use upon the railroad owned or operated by such railroad corporation, and each such railroad corporation shall have an in the property upon the route of the railroad owned or operated by it, and may insurance thereon in its own behalf for its protection against such damages.
(RSMo 1939 § 5223)
Prior revisions: 1929 § 4766; 1919 § 9954; 1909 § 3151
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RSMo 537.370
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Legal information, not legal advice. Always confirm with the official source at revisor.mo.gov.