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Large fire in Charlestown displaces 23
By adamg on Fri, 12/16/2016 - 7:29am
Charlestown Fire @universalhub pic.twitter.com/1nyXW1hO2g
— Rob O'Brien (@rbobrien1) December 16, 2016
Boston firefighters responded to 144 Bunker Hill St. around 6:45 a.m. for what quickly became a six-alarm fire.
The Boston Fire Department reports no injuries. The department says 11 people at 144 Bunker Hill St. were displaced and that 12 people were forced out at 28 Monument St. behind the fire due to smoke and water damage and because their building lost power.
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Comments
Why do we have so many fires in Boston?
The old housing stock? Anyone know? I can't remember ever hearing of a fire where I grew up but it's so common here.
1960-1980 Boston burned
1960-1980 Boston burned extensively from arson.
Yes, that was the time
Yes, there were many fires in old run-down buildings throughout JP, Mattapan, Dorchester, and Roxbury.
So much so that the fire department created a special map called the "special unit district" with its own battalion chief to handle fires in that area. It was made up of a corner of each of Districts 5 (Mission Hill-Northeastern), District 7 (Pope's Hill-Geneva), and District 8, (Field's Corner-Mattapan). That chief was also then the secondary chief for fires in those respective districts as those areas saw the majority of the fires.
Huh?
Any stats to back that up? I'd guess we have significantly fewer fires now vs. 20-30 yrs ago.
From '13, but here you go.
"But as a recent Globe story reported, city records show that major fires are becoming vanishingly rare. In 1975, there were 417 of them. Last year, there were 40. That’s a decline of more than 90 percent. A city that was once a tinderbox of wooden houses has become—thanks to better building codes, automatic sprinkler systems, and more careful behavior—a much less vulnerable place."
https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/09/07/plenty-firefighters-but-whe...
Developers
want to jam new housing units into every open area of the City. The City allows outrageous density falsely proclaiming this is safe because of fire sprinklers. Buildings still burn, more units are occupied and people are living in luxury tenements.
Outrageous density?
Really.
Barcelona and Paris and London are laughing their asses off at you. NYC, too!
You are a silly little parochial git.
your point stands
though its worth noting somerville's population density relative to the rest of the country, even more so if you take NYC out of the equation
Not rocket science, except...
It's just not true. See the link I provided above.
Old houses and drought
Charlestown and Southie and Dorchester have long been wood-framed conflagrations waiting to happen.
Also, it is very dry this year. Dry winds, dried out buildings all make for bad fire conditions.
The difference is that now they burn one building instead of a block. Or one block instead of an entire neighborhood (see also: Chelsea, Newmarket)
Can you tell us more about the Newmarket fire?
I'm familiar with the multiple Chelsea fires, but not the one in Newmarket.
Bellflower 1964 fire?
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/05/21/city-recalls-devastating-do...
https://www.bostonglobe.com/specials/insiders/2014/05/14/the-bellflower-...
Very close to that area, very devastating fire.
Similar to Cambridge
The Bellflower St fire was very similar to what happened in Cambridge. One house started then a combo of weather and close-proximity of structures saw it take off. At least one building did collapse like in Cambridge. It actually extended to the next street over as well.
Oh no, the laundromat
Site of a key scene in the movie "The Town".
And also an important resource for the residents.
Yes
And the family who work at the laundromat have a young child. They're really nice people. I'm going to look to see if there are some avenues for providing them with needed items. If UHubbers or Adam know of any, I'd appreciate a link here.
Just devastating on the heels
Just devastating on the heels of the 6-alarm in July.
Frozen car towed away
Amy Bucher watched a car that had been parked at the fire scene and which got covered in water that promptly froze towed away tonight.
We drove by last night.
We drove by last night. Absolutely surreal. There's a half-burned tree completely slumped over and encased in ice.