A group of residents poured 25 gallons of gasoline onto the baseball field of Ridgefield High School on Saturday in a misguided effort to dry out the field.
The town of Ridgefield could pay more than $50,000 to repair the damaged baseball diamond.
Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi said he isn’t sure why no one tried to prevent the fire.
“We’re all aware of the ad that says, ‘See something, say something.’ Well they literally saw something quite spectacular right in front of them, and I don’t know if anyone said, ‘Don’t do that’ or “Stop, this is illegal.’ But the fact is, it happened.”
Marconi said the infield was set on fire to dry the soil before a game over the weekend. He said no one was injured.
Jeff Chandler, supervisor of the emergency response unit at Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said children could’ve been exposed to gasoline contamination.
“The gasoline, even though it was lit on fire, would likely still be present in the soil, which was proven to be true as we were doing the follow-up work for the clean-up aspect of it. So that direct exposure by the children definitely would’ve caused ill-effects.”
Chandler said DEEP must wait until the department determines whether or not the soil is free from contamination to reopen the field.
Ridgefield Police say no one has been charged.