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Great: The Charles River is flammable

By adamg on Thu, 09/06/2007 - 5:57pm

The Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports that five people working on a Charles River cleanup suffered burns when a "taffy-like substance," which they'd hauled aboard their boat, caught fire this afternoon near the Esplanade.

Officials are investigating exactly what the stuff is, but say they doubt it was part of an intentionally explosive device.

Free tagging: 
Charles River
Esplanade


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Comments

By FlyingToaster on Thu, 09/06/2007 - 11:50pm.

... linky goodness.

That's just scary. And I was wishing I had a boat to pick up trash in the area above the Watertown dam.

I'm rethinking that idea now.

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By Ron Newman on Fri, 09/07/2007 - 7:29am.
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By adamg on Fri, 09/07/2007 - 7:45am.

Was Jake Wark, p.r. person for the Suffolk County DA's office. I saw some video of firefighters at the Charles on Channel 5 last night (their online report).

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By It's called Google... on Fri, 09/07/2007 - 7:51am.

Two online sources:
townhall.com/...ignites_in_boston_trash_boat

www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg...

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By Abby on Fri, 09/07/2007 - 1:50pm.

The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland is also flammable, so sayeth R.E.M. and Wikipedia!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyahoga_River (first paragraph)
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/r/rem/coyahoga_20179015...
----
http://proactivebusybody.com

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By Ron Newman on Fri, 09/07/2007 - 2:37pm.

Burn On, by Randy Newman (no relation to me)

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By Ron Newman on Fri, 09/07/2007 - 7:23pm.

Globe: MIT prank may have caused minor explosion on Charles River. Specifically, the "whitish, lumpy substance" may have been sodium.

Apparently this is an annual tradition, though I don't remember it from my time there in 1975-79.

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