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Worker on smoke break sparks fire that destroys waterfront law office

Water from below. Photo by BFD.Divers spray the fire from below. Photo by BFD. More photos.

Post updated at 12:30 p.m.

A stubborn wharf fire that erupted around 5 a.m. sent five firefighters to the hospital and did an estimated $3 million in damage to the two-story Sarrouf Law building at 95 Commercial Wharf, the Boston Fire Department reports.

Property owners will need to make some decisions on the future of this building. ... The cause was the careless disposal of a cigarette. Specifically, an employee worked late into the night. They would go to the 2nd floor balcony for cigarette breaks. Fire Investigators based this on ruling out other causes, burn patterns, interviews and other factors.

Divers were ordered into the water with a hose to help fight the fire from below. Above, firefighters cut trenches in the building's floor to get at the fire, which spread under the floorboards. Firefighters were still battling pockets of fire at 7:30 a.m.

Three firefighters suffered smoke inhalation, one a rib injury and another a neck injury, the department says, adding that at the height of the fire, 75 firefighters were on scene.

The smoke was so thick it set off at least one smoke detector in Charlestown.

Wharf fireWharf fire. Photo by BFD.

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Comments

I would have had a great view of this fire if I was up at 5AM. Darn. Still spraying it with fire houses though right now.

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I knew something smelled unusually good this morning around 7 am... Kind of like a camp fire.

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Some of them can sure be thoughtful.

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Seems that folks in these parts think flinging lit ciggies around is a divine right of smokers and couldn't possibly be a fire problem ... and they are wrong.

Pull that stunt in a western state and you'd be on the hook for the cost of the damage.

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I saw a commercial a couple of weeks ago (probably on Cartoon Network) for a kids' scooter that sprays sparks out the back as they scoot. I wondered how many fires they'll cause in Texas, etc.

Ah, here it is.

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There's sure a lot of stupid people in this world, aren't there? My g*d, when are people going to learn?

I still haven't forgotten the time that a woman who resides on the first floor of our building (on my side, too), fell asleep while smoking in bed, and started a fire in her first floor loft. The guy next door to her smelled smoke and started pounding on her door, yelling for her to get out. The smoke began going up the stairwell (I'm on the fourth floor), and I got myself and McGee (who's no longer alive but was then and passed on a year ago last February), out of the building, along with all the rest of my neighbors. What a mess! Fortunately, in this case, it wasn't a windy night, or that fire might well have spread.

Back to the subject at hand; the jerks like the one who caused the wharf fire at five-thirty in the morning, as well as the woman in my building who caused a fire by smoking in bed and falling asleep are always the ones who are making trouble for others, because they're so careless, irresponsible and nasty about it when confronted with their failures.

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. . . since this fire happened and the building is still a fire damaged boarded up eye sore. Is anything happening on this?

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