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Several fires reported in Franklin Park yesterday

Boston firefighters responded to Franklin Park for outside fires at five or six locations yesterday, including near the playground, golf course and White Stadium.

Photos from one of the fires.

All the fires are under investigation, but a BFD spokesperson had a simple request: If you smoke, don't just drop or toss your butts on the ground. Especially since we haven't gotten any rain in recent days, a single smouldering butt could be enough to set the brush or newly laid mulch on fire. And don't just throw a lit cigarette out your window as you drive through the park, the spokesperson, Firefighter Brian Alkins, added. In the absence of any proof of arson or other causes, he said this sort of behavior is the most likely source of the fires, as the weather warms and more people return to the park.

In the Jamaica Plain Facebook group, one resident reported additional fires on Monday and Tuesday in the wilderness area.

Other residents reported that a beloved quirky little Franklin Park thing - a wizard painted on boards covering a small tree cavity - had been torn apart and burned.

Unlike Franklin Park, the department has yet to see fires in Boston's traditional brush-fire zones: Stony Brook Reservation on the Hyde Park/Roslindale/West Roxbury line, the marshes near Granite Avenue in Dorchester and the Back Bay Fens.

The department expects those in the summer, when things get really hot and dry and people keep tossing lit cigarette buts onto the ground, Alkins said, adding officials are hopeful there were be fewer problems along the Fens due to work the Army Corps of Engineers is currently doing that includes removing the reeds that tend to catch fire.

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Comments

Torn apart and burned.... Arson? Or just buts?

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there is no way that these fires were set by cigarette buttes. I've lived next to this park for 6 years, and we've never seen anything like this... even in much more serious droughts in the peak of summer.

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I’ve lived next to the park for longer and I think it seems reasonable considering that smokers cause a large percentage of overall fires with their moronic behavior. People start little bonfires on the rock cliffs sometimes but that’s nowhere near some of the locations mentioned.

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but like 6 fires in 2 days? From careless smokers? What are the odds?

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So, back that up. why don't ya?

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I've lived around here 48 years this never happened so many in one day. Definitely a serial arsonist

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You literally stopped in the middle of a sentence, Adam. Are you OK?

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Maybe the phone rang or the microwave dinged and when I got back I forget to finish the sentence. It is complete now, and, yes, I am fine.

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I think you're on auto pilot sometimes..

post post post.. tweet tweet tweet, reply reply

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have I needed to know so much RIGHT NOW about reeds.

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We didn’t start the fire.

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The fires aren't being caught, they're being started,

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Mulch can spontaneously combust.

“Spontaneous combustion can happen when a decomposing, organic material such as mulch generates enough heat to ignite without an outside source," said Chief Fire Marshal Linda Hale. "Because of this, a large or compacted area of mulch can create sufficient heat to spontaneously combust. Remember, in all cases, mulch fires are more likely to start when the weather is hot, and it has been dry for an extended period.”
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To the American Legion giant mulch pile, no doubt.

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I've seen it smoldering and steaming in the winter months. Definitely a lot of heat being generated under that pile on American Legion.

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Maybe there is a correlation!

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