Hey, there! Log in / Register

Careless smoker starts four-alarm fire in Dorchester

87 Sawyer St fire in Dorchester

The Boston Fire Department says "careless disposal of smoking material" started a fire this afternoon that did $500,000 in damage to the house at 87 Sawyer Ave. and melted the siding on the house next door.

Ten people - plus a family moving into one of the house's four units today - were made homeless, the department says.

Firefighters responded at 12:55 p.m. Fire commanders called in extra firefighters to limit the amount of time firefighters had to spend in the heat battling the blaze.

Video by the Dorchester Reporter.

Neighborhoods: 
Topics: 
Free tagging: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

I saw the black column of smoke from the Expressway at a couple of minutes to one pm.

As I got closer and could reckon a little bit where it was, I was afraid it was St Mary's Women and Infants Center. Turns out I had the right hill, anyway.

I flipped from what I was listening to WBZ to catch the headlines and traffic at the top of the hour. Unsurprisingly, they didn't mention it in the news and they didn't mention it in the traffic. They did mention that Xway NB was slow but either didn't know why or didn't think to say why (largely rubbernecking the column of smoke).

The cherry on top was that the next thing over the air from 'BZ was a promo spot from Saint Mary's Women & Infants Center.

up
Voting closed 0

Unsurprisingly, they didn't mention it in the news and they didn't mention it in the traffic.

Because it's obviously more important to justify their junket to cover a wasteful and pointless convention in Philadelphia than to actually report on news happening in Boston. The only thing worse is being force fed even more ads down your throats, like when Herb Tarlek Gary LaPierre interrupts to tell you how to cheat nursing homes out of their fees.

up
Voting closed 0

Here is the thing about radio. Nobody is forcing you to listen to it. If you don't like the content, be a good American and exercise your right to change the damn channel. There are plenty of other options if you don't like the coverage.

up
Voting closed 0

ummm...

I WAS listening to another channel.

I DID change the damn channel - to the local all-news station*.

To get LOCAL NEWS.

Because, no, there ISN'T any other option. Not in this market.

Because when there's a fire in the middle of a residential neighborhood putting out a volume of smoke usually achieved in this area only by fire drills on the tarmac at Logan, it's not unreasonable to think that the local news station might have the local news.

up
Voting closed 0

Thank you.

up
Voting closed 0

I didn't respond to your comment.

I was responding to the old fart's comment.

up
Voting closed 0

There are plenty of other options if you don't like the coverage.

What other options? Lets see here. WBZ Radio - Top of the hour, half hour, and as many times in between as they can get away with it headline - Our man from Boston live at the Democratic National Junket - er - Convention in Philadelphia, which goes on with the reporting and "analysis" for three minutes and is resumed after the traffic and weather reports for another three minutes

WBZ TV - Top of the hour, half hour, and as many times in between as they can get away with it headline - Live from the Democratic National Junket - er Convention in Philadelphia, which goes on with reporting and "analysis" for five to seven minutes

New England Cable News, WCVB TV, WHDH TV, etc. - Top of the hour, half hour, and as many times in between as they can get away with it headline - Live from the Democratic National Junket - er -Convention in Philadelphia which goes on with reporting and "analysis" for five to seven minutes

Yep, live coverage of events in Philadelphia is really showing diversity in coverage of Boston-area local news. But by your primitive standards, anyone who disagrees with this pointless and wasteful coverage of blown up non events (it had already been established who the nominee would be without the need for a junket to declare that) must be an old fart. Sad that

up
Voting closed 0

You want traffic and just traffic? Google maps with traffic or Waze

Want radio without ads or talk? Sirius XM, Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, IheartRadio..

Want all talk radio with just your point of view. Again Sirius.

Like it or not, the DNC is news. Just like the RNC was last week. One of those idiots will be president. News stations follow news items. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it is not profitable for the radio stations.

Your life must be truly miserable if this is what sends you over the edge.

up
Voting closed 0

Your life must be truly miserable if this is what sends you over the edge.

You should hear him go off if anyone has the temerity to call Route 128 "Route 128".

up
Voting closed 0

the DNC and the RNC is so important that it has to totally monopolize the newscasts on supposed LOCAL news outlets, and preempt coverage of more important local stories by those outlets. The media has been telling us who the presumptive nominees for both parties would be for months now, even before all states have conducted their primary elections. We don't need every little detail of the political parties special junkets - er - "conventions" forced down our throats every moment just so "journalists" can justify their expenses and make excuses to force feed us even more advertising.

And, with respect, what is truly miserable is not my life, but the fact that so many people are so willing to accept the increasing "monkey see - monkey do" and "let's put an extra two ads in our broadcast and hope nobody notices" attitudes of the media. Just another example of how this country is truly being taken over by the corporate interests.

up
Voting closed 0

You are listening to a product. Radio. You don't have to listen to it. Nobody does. If enough people feel the same way as you, those radio stations will change their format. That is how business works.

up
Voting closed 0

Nobody has to justify jack shit to you. You're not that important.

up
Voting closed 0

All the stations are broadcasting the same nonsense and with the same mission of increasing the ad content at the expense of actual news coverage- you know, the REASON we tune in in the first place.

And just why is it so unreasonable that a local Boston news station should focus on LOCAL news stories first. Instead, we get lazy reporters and even lazier editors who would rather focus on the same overhyped stories that everyone else is reporting on.

up
Voting closed 0

And awful. And useless except maybe a very brief news and weather on the 3s. And those generally suck, too.

They don't really deserve to call themselves a news station. IMHO.

up
Voting closed 0

How many of these smoking materials fires are weed vs tobacco?

up
Voting closed 0

Does it matter? Home is still f'd

up
Voting closed 0

I would imagine it's relatively low. Tobacco cigarettes stay lit if you leave them unattended (I've been told that they are made with added ingredients to facilitate this). Weed (and roll-your-own tobacco) tends to go out if you don't keep dragging on it.

Or so I've heard.

Doesn't mean it's impossible to start a fire if you drop a joint in your sofa or fall asleep with one in your hand, but it's probably less likely than with a typical tobacco cigarette.

Also, who cares?

up
Voting closed 0

Well?

up
Voting closed 0

 

up
Voting closed 0

If it's cigarettes they would just say cigarettes wouldn't they? If they won't say cigarettes then it must be weed.

up
Voting closed 0

See the reference, below.

Smoking material can refer to pipes, cigars, etc. too. Usually? Cigarettes, which will keep burning due to the properties of tobacco.

What is your point with all this, anyway??? Colorado legalized some years ago, and MMJ has been available in numerous states for some time, so there is actual evidence, facts, and data! No need to speculate!

up
Voting closed 0

Cigarettes, which will keep burning due to the properties of tobacco.

No, Scratchie is correct, it's not an inherent property of shredded tobacco to keep burning, it's chemicals like saltpeter added to cigarettes so that they will keep burning. Just another measure of the high regard tobacco companies have for their customers. I rolled my own for years, and none of the tobaccos I used would keep burning unless I kept puffing on them.

Also, "careless disposal of smoking materials" is the language they've used for most of my life. It's pretty pointless to single out one leaf or another to be the "culprit."

up
Voting closed 0

Somebody is a specificity ninny. It is the properties of the tobacco used in cigarettes. Read the article - the burn rings in the paper help,but not with weed.

up
Voting closed 0

Somebody is an all-around ninny who wants to pretend my comment was a response to a different set of words from the ones directly quoted in it. Read the comment, or the one it's a response to, or the Republican Party Platform, or the latest Dan Brown novel, or whatever floats your boat, but none of your scorn is warranted.

up
Voting closed 0

Ciggies and booze are a very bad combo (pass out or fall asleep while smoking).

You must have had a tame family.

up
Voting closed 0

Spilling your beer doesn't usually result in a fire...but I wonder how many of the fires caused by people falling asleep with lit cigarettes ALSO involve alcohol, e.g. if they are too sleepy to be careful because they're inebriated.

up
Voting closed 0

MJ cigarettes self-extinguish in lab tests versus cigarettes due to oils/resins - even when constructed in the same manner as cigarettes with the same paper that is designed to keep a cigarette burning.

Regardless of construction type (hand-rolled vs. tube), the marijuana cigarettes were much more difficult to initially ignite compared to the tobacco cigarettes. Throughout the testing, the marijuana cigarettes would frequently self extinguish during the pre-burn period and frequently had to be relit while on the elevated stand. When the marijuana cigarettes were being tested, the unburned paper ring directly behind the propagating smoldering front would start to show visible oils and resins that appeared to be wicking from the material as it pyrolized, as illustrated in Figure 10. This phenomenon was most prominent in the indica-dominant hybrid strain, which generated larger amounts of the visible oils and resins when burned. The timing associated with the highest levels of these oils occurring coincided with the time when the cigarettes tended to self extinguish.

Read the entire National Association of Fire Inspectors report HERE

up
Voting closed 0

Throughout the testing, the marijuana cigarettes would frequently self extinguish during the pre-burn period and frequently had to be relit while on the elevated stand.

Shee-oot! Ain't that the truth!

Or, er, so I've heard.

up
Voting closed 0

Considering the number of times I see cigarette smokers just toss their still-lit butts on the ground without even bothering to stamp them out, it doesn't surprise me that they sometimes cause fires.

What's with those people anyway? Why do they think it's OK to leave their butts on the ground, even when extinguished?

up
Voting closed 0