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One expensive smoke: Lit cigarette ignites $500,000, two-alarm fire on Mission Hill early this morning

The Boston Fire Department reports a lit cigarette in a porch couch started a fire around 5 a.m. that heavily damaged the single-family home at 18 Eldora St.

Three residents were at home at the time; all got out safely.

The department says the front porch of the house, where the cigarette was, was burned away. The fire traveled to the second floor up the stairs, the department says.

Channel 4 reports one of the residents, like the others a Mass. College of Arts student, fell asleep on the couch while smoking.

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Comments

I saw what I assumed were a couple of the residents when I biked past this morning. Dejected people standing around in their pajamas while firefighters work on a house are probably wondering "what now?".

The owner will be lucky if he can salvage anything from the fire, the house may need to be torn down. The residents have probably lost everything, including a place to live.

Considering when this fire happened it's really good news that no one was hurt.

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I'm not trying to be flip here. This is a real question.

If the couch that the cigarette was supposed to have ignited was burnt away, and the fire damage was so spectacularly extensive as it was, then how do they know it was a cigarette that started the blaze? I mean, outside of someone telling them that they dropped a smoke down the back of the couch? In a fire that huge, could there possibly be unburnt cigarette remnants remaining? Even if the couch is destroyed?

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

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But I believe certain types of fires show burn patterns that can be traces to a source where you can tell what type of source they came from.

I've seen these fire inspectors look at things like couches and walls and tell right away what actually started the fire. I don't know how accurate they are but fire science has some sort of standard which they go by.

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I guess that makes sense. I mean, I obviously don't have the knowledge to say that it doesn't make sense :-)

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

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I have wondered about these fire investigations also. I have no knowledge but I would remain skeptical. Here are some interesting reads..

"Weak Forensic Science Has High Cost"
http://magazine.amstat.org/blog/2010/03/01/scipolm...
Though this one is in a newsletter for statisticians, perhaps jealous of their
CSI type colleagues?

Study questions reliability of fingerprint evidence
James Randerson, science correspondent
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/mar/23/crim...

"Scientists reject bullet-mark database" MSNBC Deep Background, Pete Williams, NBC
NewsJustice Correspondent, Posted on Wednesday, March 05, 2008

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I read the Phoenix. Only Northeastern students live in Mission Hill.

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You beat me to it... I was going to wonder aloud how the residents were going to blame Northeastern for this one!

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with the number of Northeastern students up on the Hill it's a sure bet. Wentworth is second (but not close), and after that, MASS Art.

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I'm pretty sure I just heard on the news that they were in fact MassArt students in that house.

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MCPHS students live on the Hill too. I've always wondered this, but never looked up enrollment numbers until now for MassArt and MCPHS. MCPHS' website claims an enrollment of 3,325 for their Boston campus. MassArt's website boosts 1688 for the BFA program. Granted, MCPHS might provide amazing housing options compared to MassArt, but I don't really care to look up that information. Purpose of this post: Bob, how did you place MassArt students in third place as Mission Hill occupants?

http://www.mcphs.edu/about_mcphs/#Enrollment
http://www.massart.edu/About_MassArt/Quick_Facts.html

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Umm everyone can live in Mission Hill. Students from any college, familys... Not just NU kids...

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Nearly burned the house down and killed your friends? Might be time to quit smoking!!

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Bummer. It's a nice one. Mass. College of Pharmacy students also live in The Hill. They, too, are quite the partiers. Perhaps it's the knowledge of pharmaceuticals?

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I used to live in that house!!

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