
Smoke billowing into the air. Photo by BFD.
Boston firefighters are at Gerard Street, near Mass and Cass, where a large trash-transfer facility erupted in flames around 8:30 a.m.
The fire is now at eight alarms, meaning firefighters from across the city and nearby communities are on scene. The Boston Fire Department reports firefighters were ordered out of the building and are attacking the fire only from outside.
The facility is run by ReSource Waste Services, which takes in "a wide variety of solid, non-hazardous construction and demolition materials from waste handlers, contractors, roofers, landscapers, property managers, clean-out companies and homeowners," recycles reusable stuff and then transforms what's left into "reusable commodities."
The department also reports that wind has complicated the battle - and is urging nearby residents to keep their windows and doors closed.

In addition to firefighters from across Boston, fire crews from surrounding communities drove into Boston, both to help at the fire and to cover empty Boston firehouses. Shortly after 1 p.m., for example, a Somerville firetruck responded to a call on Boylston Street in the Back Bay.
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Comments
The air quality must be
By Nurze
Sun, 03/16/2025 - 9:51am
The air quality must be horrific. Cannot breathe inside BMC right now
cliff
By Anonymous
Sun, 03/16/2025 - 10:48am
God bless the brave men and women of the Boston Fire Department. Wise decision to pull the firefighters out of the structure before it collapses.
I heard it is now
By jmeltzer
Sun, 03/16/2025 - 2:38pm
a ten l llllllllllama.
Thankful for BFD and neighbors
By mg
Sun, 03/16/2025 - 2:57pm
Thank you to all the members of the BFD and all the neighboring fire departments who are aiding and providing coverage. The air pollution they and people in the neighborhood are inhaling must be horrific.
OT - website
By mg
Sun, 03/16/2025 - 3:20pm
@Adam -
No, grr, we're still limping along on the old drive, but ...
By adamg
Sun, 03/16/2025 - 3:52pm
There are other ways to speed up a database on a creaky server, including caching stuff in RAM rather than on the hard drive, via an app called redis - once you increase the amount of RAM available to the db and apps like that.
And now we wait for the hosting company to swap in the new drive, which should mean even better performance.
Thanks for the head's up on the missing page, now to go find it and put it back.
Whatever, it worked!
By mg
Sun, 03/16/2025 - 4:01pm
Glad you were able to have RAM to work with - it's a huge improvement!
Company statement
By adamg
Sun, 03/16/2025 - 4:36pm
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