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Four-alarm fire at Beacon Hill market
By adamg on Thu, 07/08/2010 - 11:01am
Photo of the remains of DeLuca's by Jeff Cutler.
Boston_Fireman tweets Boston fire companies are at DeLuca's Market, 11 Charles St., because of a fire that started in the basement and spread upwards: Crews are attempting to rescue a turtle and either a cat or a dog on the floor above the market. The fire went to four alarms shortly after noon.
Channel 4: Owner vows to rebuild.
Charles Street was shut to traffic between Pickney and Beacon; Beacon is shut between Charles and Park.
Fire photos from Channel 5. Boston Herald photos.
This is Boston's fifth two-alarm or worse fire since July 4
th.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
I'm guessing no sprinkler system?
Judging by the size of the emergency response, I'd say someone decided to forgo installing one.
Maybe we need another century of case studies to fully appreciate their value.
The Globe paints a picture of the 'hood
The Globe reports:
Which should clear things up for those of you unclear on the character of Beacon Hill - which, by the way, is served at the other end by the Longfellow Bridge, once described by the Globe thusly:
Funny, they never write descriptions like that
when there's a fire in Grove Hall. Just sayin'
What about the big fire in Medford last night?
I only see the story on NECN. I saw Cambridge's Engine 4 racing northbound through Davis Square last night and knew something had to be up.
Some video
Rick Nohl was on scene.
What about the other creatures
I hope the fire department doesn't waste time on the other creatures that they have been cited for in the past.
icky store
That place is vile. I sometimes buy a bottle or two of wine there on the way home, but I wouldn't buy food there. It appears dirty, it smells, and the prices are ridiculous. Even the wine is overpriced. But what a great location!
CP
Well ...
Looks like you won't have to worry about that for awhile.
Best Cellars, here I come
Right, well it's a good thing I bought a couple bottles yesterday.
CP
A differing opinion of DeLuca's
I have a soft spot in my heart for DeLuca's, because it's where my MIT cooperative house was finally able to restock up on milk after the Blizzard of '78, when nobody else in Kenmore Square or Back Bay had any for sale. We towed the milk back home down Beacon Street on a toboggan.
DeLuca's is also where I go for take-out picnic meals before Wednesday night concerts at the Hatch Shell. i'll miss them a lot this summer.
I hope they can quickly rebuild and reopen.
A sorta similar story
One year, or Thanksgiving plans got cancelled abruptly. DeLuca's was the only place open T-day morning. We grabbed all the stuff we needed for a thanksgiving dinner thanks to them being open.
They have been cited by the health department seemingly dozens upon dozens of times, but I don't think they deserved to be burned to the ground.
Take out?
Why would anyone buy take-out prepared food from a place that has been cited so many times for health violations?
Ignorance?
Since I don't live on Beacon Hill and only occasionally visit there, I honestly didn't know about the violations. (To my knowledge, I've never gotten sick from DeLuca's food.)
I'd love to find an alternative now. Is there any other place within short walking distance of the Shell to pick up a quick take-out meal? (Whole Foods is much too far for this purpose.)
Dumb question - "__ alarm fire"
What exactly is the definition of a "__ alarm fire" ? What's the difference between a 3 alarm fire and a 4 alarm fire?
Number of responding firehouses
3-alarm fire: 3 different firehouses/companies have sent their crews.
Kaz is wrong (for once or as always, depending on who you ask)
This website isn't official, but as far as I've been able to tell, the information is pretty accurate.
http://www.angelfire.com/ma4/emba/resp.html
Fire Responses start at "REPORT OF BUILDING FIRE FIRST ALARM (Struck Box)"
Basically while a house fire draws 3 engines, 2 ladders and a rescue unit (plus chiefs and air unit), with an extra ladder coming if it is a working fire as the Rapid Intervention Team (RIT).
With each additional alarm, more trucks come.
Yep
I had it in my head that there are 2 engines per firehouse (which would roughly equate to what you linked to). For every alarm above 2 alarms, they are sending 2 additional engines.
alarms of fire
Has nothing to do with firehouses. A "struck box" is usually 6 companies (3 Engines, 2 ladders, 1 Rescue). If they call a "working fire" they usually send out another company, as their "RIT" rapid intervention crew, (an entire engine or ladder to stand by in case something happens to a firefighter, they are there only for firefighters). After that, would be a second alarm, third alarm and so on all the way to 9 alarms. It depends on the city or town how many companies respond to a second alarm or however many alarms are struck. I don't know exactly for Boston, but I'd imagine for a second alarm there'd be 3 more engines, and two more ladder trucks. After that, you've got me, because you get into special calls for rehab units, air supply units, etc. If you have anything over two alarms, it's usually for manpower, and I'd imagine that manpower is needed in this heat.
Not exactly...
No, it's much more complicated than that. On a one-alarm fire, there will typically be 3 or maybe 4 engine companies and 2 ladder companies, plus a deputy chief and other companies to assist (air supply, rescue, etc.). On the second alarm, there will be 2 or 3 additional engines and 1 additional ladder, plus probably another chief and other specialized companies to assist. Third alarm, and each additional, brings a similar response -- 2 or 3 more engines, a ladder, probably another chief. The precise response varies from city to city and even depending on the exact building involved. (A confirmed fire in a hospital or an apartment building for senior citizens, for example, would get more apparatus responding on the first alarm than a fire in a detached garage in a suburban neighborhood.)
In the city of Boston, some firehouses have just an engine company, and others have an engine and a ladder -- which means that there would be 3 or 4 firehouses responding to the first alarm, and another 2 or 3, at least, responding to each additional alarm. And this doesn't count the additional, specialized companies, or the chiefs.
All of this is planned out in advance by the fire department, even down to which firehouses will respond to the 5th alarm at a given address. And those plans are shared in advance with other nearby communities so they know what to expect, and how to respond, every time an alarm is sounded.
alarms
It's not the number of companies, but the number of times they send out for more companies.
As in, "Oh shit, this is a big fire. We better get some more guys - send out another alarm."
CP
There are no dumb questions-- asking questions is smart!
Just a note that in this weather an additional alarm may be called to give relief to the fire companies who have been fighting the fire in 85 degree plus heat. Sometimes alarms are called for reason other than the seriousness of the fire itself.
Yeah......risk a life in
Yeah......risk a life in order to save Mr. Turtle and fluffy the sullen cat.....that's the ticket
But Beacon Hillonians still have the options of patronizing:
A) The beautiful, grossly over-priced Whole Foods over on Cambridge....you know, the place where all the clerks are white 20 something hipsters with attitudes, with a few token minorities thrown in, or....
B) The lovely 7-11 @ Mt. Vernon.....you know, the place with the heatlamp breakfast sandwitches and sullen, suspicious clerks and homeless folks who hang right outside.
calm down, little buckaroo
Do you have so little respect for firefighters as to think they would risk their lives for a turtle or cat? They're trained professionals with brains -- I'm sure they assess each situation and weigh the risks and then act accordingly.
Not sure where you shop, but clearly you must not shop at that Whole Foods... because the lady in the cheese department with the quick wit and sharp knowledge of cheese looks about 50-something and of Hispanic background to me. She was talking about her kids last time I was there around Mother's Day. Must be nice to feel so superior that you reduce people who aren't white to 'token minorities'. Wake up to yourself.
Whole foods Cambridge St
Whole foods Cambridge St is:
A) FULL of MOSTLY (obviously not the lovely 'Hispanic' cheese lady; BTW I'm half 'Hispanic', i.e. Puerto Rican) 20 something white (and other, but mostly white) hipster types. And yeah, there are a few token non-20-something, hipster types thrown in for good measure. A real heaven forbid Boston accent are few and far between.
Just saying
B) The customers are MOSTLY ....errrrr what's the word? Yuppie? No, no, no, no professionals! That's it! That's the ticket. And BTW I actually seriously doubt if most of the clerks, even the white middle class 20-something hipsters, could afford to regularly shop there.....because, yeah, it's REALLY over-priced and precious.
Have a good one buckaroo.
anon is FOS
You're right--if anon describes the majority of the employees at that Whole Foods as either white or hipsters, he's either blind or just hopelessly smitten with his own theories--that Whole Foods is pretty much entirely staffed with non-whites--lots of Africans--Sudanese, East Africans, North Africans, etc., Asians, Hispanics, including the managers. It doesn't have a remotely "hipster" vibe but that seems to fit anon's pissy imaginary picture--ditto the image of firefighters "risking lives" to save some privileged pets. His whole post is foolish and bizarrely condescending.
rebuttal
Dear 'Sally' and anonymous Coward ----
Sorry if I hold contradictory views to yours. I've been in the W.F. @ Charles River Plaza 3 times; after 5 minutes it struck me the workers were top-heavy with young, white, college age, tattoo and piercings, types just like the typical non-Duncan coffee shop in Boston, Cambridge, etc., I found this a change since in my experience big supermarkets in the city are usually top heavy with local kids, etc., mostly so-called minority, other urban types, etc., It was like this every time I went. I was not turned off by this, it's a simple observation. The clientele actually annoyed me, not the workers who're probably poorly paid by their foo-foo upscale employer. The place is precious and VERY over-priced. And yeah, actually I take a little of that back because the check out clerks and bag people were kinda passive aggressive slow....but hey, maybe they dislike their customers also.
My kitty cat and turtle snark was a JOKE.....like, ha ha ha .....you know, a stupid, snarky joke. 'Sally' and anonymous Coward take my postings, and probably other things, too seriously. I'm just venting....shooting the caca....lighten up.
And I'm 1/2 Rican (my papi) so I can goof on 'Minorities' and 'Whites' all I want
step 1 - Take a deep
step 1 - Take a deep breath.
step 2 - Redirect yourself to bostonherald.com where you'll feel at home with your empty rants.
You can hold all the
You can hold all the "contradictory" views you want--it's a free country--but if you want to spout opinions, it's nice to have some facts to back them up and not just some random observations that you made in the course of "five minutes" or your goofy theories about how poorly paid the workers are. I know that place well--shopped there for several years and know the staff reasonably well. There were a few pierced-nose type young white guys, mostly doing the delivery, but the majority of the staff is as I described--minority, a lot of new immigrants, and everyone there has always been friendly and helpful to my (non-white) family. How the clientele managed to irritate you so severely in the space of three five-minute visits is really beyond me--maybe you just need to relax.