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Saugus fire spews fumes that can be smelled across area
By adamg on Sun, 05/15/2011 - 1:32pm
Why people as far away as Watertown could smell it. Photo by Kris.
AlertNewEngland reports an old commercial building on Rte. 107 caught fire late morning and is sending up plumes of black smoke. Around 1 p.m., Prairie Rose Clayton reported the air in Porter Square was "thick, hazy, heavy with ozone/plastic scent."
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Thanks!
I've been trying to figure out what that smell was for a few hours now-- thought it was just up in Somerville. UniversalHub to the rescue, once again!
Oh, that's what the smoke was ??
I was co-leading a bike ride along the Mystic River in Medford around 12:30 this afternoon, and we were all trying to figure out why the air was so smoky. We didn't see or hear any fire engines, nor did we see flames or any obvious source for the smoke. We wondered if Quebec forests were burning again.
On the Mystic
Downstream of Rt. 16 it started smelling like "campfire" and changed to "car fire" as the 9- and 12-mile Herring Run paddlers entered the basin near the Blessing of the Bay. I was off the water around 2pm, and people were talking about how it was worse as the 12 milers got down to the Earhart Dam and the Malden River.
Thanks for the info
I could smell it out here in Watertown, to the point where I checked the stove to see if something was burning. It's starting to dissipate now, but was really strong about an hour or so ago.
i work right across the inlet
i work right across the inlet and haven't smelled anything, thankfully enough (but i'm inside). i came in to work right as it started burning - it was huge!
-kt
It was an old Lobster shack.
It was an old Lobster shack. Roommate was eating at a resteraunt across the street from it. I have pics that he sent me. I'd love to link/upload them, Adam.
Roommate said it started internally inside as it wasnt burning when they sat down to eat. They pretty much watch it go up as they ate.
Photos
Thanks! If you can email them or post on Flickr, I can post.
Conley & Dagget
I'm assuming the "lobster shack" was the recently nearly burned down shell of what was once Conley & Dagget, a thriving lobster business many years ago that has been derelict and nasty for many decades now. It went up in flames a couple of years back and they let the shell of what remained sit there looking like hell, when the town or the State should have forced the owners to either tear the damned thing down or rebuild it. Instead they parked panel trucks on the lot including one with a big advertisement on the side for the Golden Banana. Pure class. The reprehensible assholes who owned it used to let trash trucks go and dump crap that even RESCO (before Wheelabrator came along) wouldn't burn. Dewey Dagget was a drug-addled scumbag. No idea who owns it now (Dagget's dead), but they also own whatever is buried on that property (which aside from toxic trash probably includes a body or two).
No wonder it smelled so bad going up...
Interesting History
I wonder how many generations back this Dagget clan connects with my Grandmother's Daggett clan, which moved north to Maine and then headed further west with each passing generation over the course of a couple centuries.
Sap of the family tree
Dewey was sort of a dead end on the tree -- no kids, he ran the business into the ground and as far as I know any siblings or other relatives close enough to lay claim to his properties had moved out to California and wanted nothing to do with any of it (especially since most of the properties appeared to be more liabilities than assets).
The lobster market was big back in maybe the 30s through the 50s (wild guess based on some old photo I have of a woman holding some lobsters in the store -- looks like one of the Andrew Sisters) and Dewey was sowing wild oats during the 60s and 70s in Saugus. I think there were other relatives in Saugus (one passed away recently, married name Chadwick). Dewey finally kicked off somewhere back in the early 90s I believe. Searching through court case histories and police logs would probably be the most effective avenue for research, unfortunately.
Huge Families, Itchy Feet
The records I have for my grandmother's clan trace all the lines back (variably spelled with one t or two t's) to Martha's Vinyard in the late 17th/early 18th century (a granddaughter of John Howland married in, connecting the whole diverse mess of rednecks, fishermen and tony Yankees alike to the Mayflower). Each early generation listed in a geneology that I have listed 8-12 or more kids, the vast majority living to adulthood. This meant that somebody had to move on with each successive generation, as the available land filled up pretty quickly.
Some of those stuck around in MA. Some moved on early to New Vinyard, ME (starting around 1800), but others kept heading west and winding up in California and Oregon by 1900 or so.
Daggett (or Dagget) is a fairly distinctive name, and the initial members arrived very early in the era of settlement. Thus it makes an interesting tracer for westward migration and the settlement patterns of the continent.
As I brought out my dog this
As I brought out my dog this afternoon in Allston I could smell burning plastic. It was so strong I went back into the house and checked out the basement to make sure everything was okay. The fire must have been huge for the odor to travel so far, I hope no one was hurt.
I was at home in Saugus all
I was at home in Saugus all that day and literally had no clue until I came across this. Didn't smell a thing...