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Christmas tree turns on gas, starts fire in Dorchester

American Legion Highway fire

The Boston Fire Department reports a Christmas tree being moved to a porch at 86 American Legion Highway flicked on a gas burner, which set the tree on fire, causing a blaze that did an estimated $250,000 in damage.

One resident was injured in the two-alarm fire, reported shortly after noon. The bulk of the damage was confined to one apartment, but several apartments suffered smoke and water damage, the department says.

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Comments

At one of our house parties, someone in the packed kitchen leaned against the gas stove, and managed to turn a burner knob and start the igniter (design flaw?). Fortunately I was right there and heard the clicking noise over the music. I removed the knobs for parties ever since. Problem solved.

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I mean, aside from the code violation with the grill on the balcony, grills are easily shut off at the tank when not in use, and easy to turn on when needed.

Electric stoves are worse than gas ones when it comes to accidentally being turned on: they don't hiss, click, smell, or give any warning that they are heating up unless they are the newfangled ones that light up.

My stove controls are all on the stove top, so no worries about parties. We did have a long-ago incident with a toaster oven lever, as did a friend whose house burned.

You can get child-resistant covers for stove knobs if this is a regular problem.

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aside from the code violation with the grill on the balcony

I learned here at UHub about rooftop grills being banned and why - that made sense. But gas grills on balconies are against code? Sometimes the building or condo association will ban them, but I didn't know they were a code violation. Are there certian parameters, or are they outright banned?

And yes, definitely shut the gas off at the tank or gas line. The gas valves in the grills are fair quality and will leak.

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Propane grills are banned from balconies over the first floor of any residential structure and charcoal is outright banned in buildings in Boston.

(well, technically its the use or storage of a propane container above the first floor, so you actually could have a grill if it was piped to a gas source and not drawing from a tank right next to it)

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this is my family the fire was bad they lost everything including the 2 girls under the age of 11's Christmas. my aunt who is interior designer lost all of her machines and work...this is a sad time for us but a time for us to all stick together and help them out. we are going to start a fundraiser to help them recover...anyone who can help please email me [email protected]

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