Fenway apartment building erupts in flames; nine injured

smokers are more likely to cause fires, etc. They are plenty of people in their 50's, 60's, and even 70's and 80's who are more alert than younger people, don't indulge in excessive amounts of alcohol, which can make people sleepy enough to fall asleep while smoking.

A guy my age that I grew up going to school with burned his house down, obviously in a state of drunkenness, in his 30's (that's still young), and didn't even remember whether or not the fire was caused by a cigarette or a space heater.

So, anybody who thinks that young people can't cause smoking-related fires by falling asleep while smoking ought to think again.

Anybody, regardless of aga, who smokes in an old wooden house where the wiring, etc., has not been updated, and fails to dispose his/her smoking materials properly, is totally irresponsible.

I'll also add, that when my brother went to the Univ. of Chicago before transferring to UMass/Amherst ( a number of years ago), he had two roommates in University housing. One of the roommates put a pie in the oven, fell asleep, and almost started a fire. My brother and his other roommate left a note for him, which said:

Thanks for causing this problem.

Number one: It's not your pie.

number two, you could've started a fire.

number three, you could get all of kicked out of this building.

Well, sure enough, my brother and both of his roommates at the time did get kicked out of the University housing. It wasn't fun. They found other places to live, but it wasn't pleasant. What this kind of a thing proves is that all it takes is one person to screw other people over.

two teenaged kids who were cooking in the kitchen, when their parents were out, which was on the second story of the house. The parents had taken the keys with them instead of leaving the keys with their kids. A fire started, for some reason, the kids weren't able to open the windows or doors to get out, and they both died in the fire, of smoke inhalation. Had their parents left them with the keys, they might've survived.

causes, is an awful lot, imho. Nobody, including myself, is disputing the fact that cooking equipment is a leading cause of home structure fires, home fire injuries, and home fire deaths, or that smoking is the leading cause of civilian home fire deaths, and heating equipment comes in second, there.

Sometimes, however, there are other things that cause home fires. Years ago, some neighbors who lived a few houses down the street from us had their house gutted and destroyed by a fire, which was caused by aerosol spray cans. There were several pop pop pops, and the fire started. The only reason that whole family wasn't killed in the fire is that their oldest kid (the daughter) who was home from college on spring break and was up late working on her thesis, smelled smoke, quickly alerted the rest of the family, and got them all out of there, just in the nick of time. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, and they all survived, which was lucky.

By the time the fire department arrived at the scene, the fire was really raging out of control, and flames were shooting at least 100 feet into the air. The family's house was totally gutted--and totally destroyed. They managed to rebuild, but it took them quite awhile, and was expensive.

Another family in our town (although not on our street), had a house fire that resulted when their Christmas tree caught fire. Nobody knew what caused this fire, but fortunately, their house was saved, and none of the family was hurt or killed.