Four-alarm fire takes out Brighton store block
![Fire at 160 Chestnut Hill Ave.](https://www.universalhub.com/files/styles/main_image/public/images/2015/160chfire.jpg?itok=aDda76W7)
Fire at 160 Chestnut Hill Ave. Photo by BFD.
2:30 p.m. update: Building a total loss, damage estimated at $4 million. Two firefighters to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Fire Department says fire started in the pizza-place end of the block of stores, across the street from Moogy's. Fire officials say a gas main was feeding the fire and that National Grid sent in a backhoe to dig up the street to shut the flow of gas.
Boston firefighters have been at Chestnut Hill Avenue since 5:49 a.m., battling a stubborn fire that has required so much water it's affecting water pressure across the neighborhood. The Boston Fire Department reports no injuries as of 6:50 a.m.
Firefighters in the smoke. Photo by BFD.
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Brighton Fire
Eeek. I hope that it remains the case that no one is injured.
If I'm not mistaken, this is the block/building where Moogy's is (about 100 yds from the fire station)?
We could see the smoke just before 8, and even thicker at 9:30 all throughout the Fisher Hill neighborhood in Brookline and even extending over that the area to the intersection of Rt. 9 and Sumner Rd./Warren St., which makes sense given the NW wind condition. I was really surprised at how thick it was though. Any ideas of what might have been in there?
Also, if this is the building block that houses Moogy's, I will be interested to hear the cause - I feel like that building has not had good commercial fortune since renovations a few years ago that seems to stretch on and on. I know some of you live right over there - what say you?
Fire Department says it's
Fire Department says it's across the street from Moogy's.
Don't think so
Moogy's is definitely on the even side of the street. Look at streetview too; you can see the 160 on the building.
Thought I smelled something.
Just went to the grocery store and didn't see this until I was walking back. Incredible. I initially thought the smoke was coming from my house, it was so close and thick.
moogy's building
conveinience store, moogy's, cleaners and some pizza place. its got a parking lot on the side that leads back to the old jewish nursing home.
anyone know if all the businesses were destroyed?
The address provided is
The address provided is Moogy's but the Allston/Brighton Tab and WCVB say the call came if for the Village Laundry. I just walked down there and it is the block of businesses across from Moogy's.
BFD inventory
They say the block contained a laundromat, a pizza place, a catering business and a cleaning-supply business.
The cleaning supply store has
The cleaning supply store has all those chemicals in it.
We were just down there, Moogys is across the street.
That WAS our laundry place.
Well I just went by there on
Well I just went by there on my way back from a run, and the building is basically gutted. I could see straight through it almost. The air is really smokey and there's ice all over the sidewalk from the water.
Former pizza place
What it looked like before
It was already a former pizza place
Boston House of Pizza already closed down months ago (maybe even more than a year). I don't think any business had yet moved into there.
There was a new pizza place
There was a new pizza place there, Bocca Buona - it had been there for a little less than a year I think.
Fire started in pizza shop
According to the evening news, the fire department is saying it started in the pizza shop but they don't have a cause yet.
The laundromat also recently
The laundromat also recently changed hands, sometime around August of last year. The new owner there had been working on fixing the place up, slowly but surely.
Infrastructure failure
Fire officials say a gas main was feeding the fire and that National Grid sent in a backhoe to dig up the street to shut the flow of gas.
This should not be necessary.
I've heard people remark that shutoff valves in streets are sometimes in poor shape, but damn.
Hopefully BHOP can move across the street and take over the old Puzzle Pizza storefront that has been left as a time capsule from the land of mid-2007.EDIT: Looks like BHOP closed a month ago.
brighton fire question
does anyone know how old that building/row of buildings were?