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Mystery smoke overnight

By adamg on Wed, 05/17/2023 - 1:21pm

Update: Might have been brush fires in Burlington.

A Back Bay resident tries to sniff out the story:

We were up from 1-3am freaking out over what smelled like wood smoke in our home in Back Bay, . I finally established that it was actually outside, blowing from across the river and then found several tweets from all over Cambridge about the same smell. (#cambridge #fire)

Someone suggested it was from the Canadian wildfires, but surely that smoke is too dispersed to smell that strongly?

I can’t find anything about it this morning, and it looks like a front went through around then that actually lifted the Canadian smoke away from the area.

Curious minds want to know—was there a brush fire anywhere to our North that could have caused this?

Somebody in the Jamaica Plain Facebook group also smelled that smell:

Did anyone else smell wood smoke in the middle of the night last night? Brush fire, perhaps?

Neighborhoods: 
Back Bay
Jamaica Plain
Cambridge
Topics: 
Fire

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Comments

By Ron Newman on Wed, 05/17/2023 - 1:35pm.

People all over Somerville were asking the same question last night.

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By Rob on Wed, 05/17/2023 - 1:52pm.

It was Lynn/Saugus.

By anon on Wed, 05/17/2023 - 1:52pm.

Last time I could smell that (living near Coolidge Corner), someone was "camping" in the woods around the Reservoir in Brookline. Couldn't pinpoint source last night.

By Fenway Crank on Wed, 05/17/2023 - 2:41pm.

quite strongly

By Irma la Douce on Wed, 05/17/2023 - 3:35pm.

Also quite strong, seemed to be coming from the direction of Fenway, first noticed shortly before 1 am.

By aldos07 on Wed, 05/17/2023 - 3:05pm.

Wildfire smoke from Alberta was over the area as of 1 AM last night:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/UTcTXXC.png)
https://i.imgur.com/UTcTXXC.png

It was carried by the front that moved through the area during that time frame.

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By anon on Wed, 05/17/2023 - 3:15pm.

the smell was super strong in Waltham this morning.

By redlinerider on Wed, 05/17/2023 - 3:38pm.

Same experience: I wasn't sure if it was in the building, but then opened a window and could smell it every time there was a breeze. It was strong enough to seem like the neighbors had a fire pit going.

By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 05/17/2023 - 6:43pm.

It was fairly fresh, but not campfire-y enough to be in the southern Fells.

By B Hill on Wed, 05/17/2023 - 4:05pm.

Charlestown - I thought Moe the match had been released from Walpole.

By cybah on Wed, 05/17/2023 - 10:11pm.

I was wondering what smelled so bad when I was going to bed last night. It was very strong.. and had a burning plastic smell to it, which got me concerned a bit that something nearby was on fire and it wasn't a camp fire or something.

Whatever it was, it was coming in from the west as the smell was stronger in my front rooms than my bedroom (which is in the back of the house.. east side)

By Don't Panic on Wed, 05/17/2023 - 11:35pm.

The smoke smell was reported in the Mission Hill/Longwood Medical Area last night at 12:53 AM. We chalked it up to incinerator activity at Brigham and Women's Hospital. I had no idea it was so widespread.