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Only in Boston: Careless smoker sets sidewalk on fire

By adamg on Wed, 10/02/2013 - 3:10pm
Bottomless abyss covered by wooden beams and concrete

Burned out hollow sidewalk. Photo by BFD.

The Boston Fire Department reports a lit cigarette butt started a fire in the wooden beams that hold up a hollow sidewalk outside 140 Boylston St. shortly after 2 p.m.

This is a hollow sidewalk supported at points by wooden floor joists. A small hole in the sidewalk received a cigarette butt.

The joists caught fire. Firefighters used their sledge hammer to open up the sidewalk to get at the fire and extinguish it

No injuries. Some smoke in the basement. Public Works called to bring steel plate to cover hole for now.

So now we know why you can't park on a hollow sidewalk: You might fall through into a bottomless abyss.

Neighborhoods: 
Downtown
Topics: 
Fire
Free tagging: 
Boylston Street
Smokers
Hollow sidewalks


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Comments

By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 10/02/2013 - 3:37pm.

The "lit ciggy fling" will have to be one of the events.

By anon on Wed, 10/02/2013 - 4:55pm.

That would be cigarette smoker asshole olympics, not Masshole. Not everyone who flicks their lit cigarettes as if their shit doesn't stink (or their ciggies aren't trash) are from Massachusetts.

By anon on Wed, 10/02/2013 - 5:31pm.

Can we add the "just leave your dunks cup anywhere" to the event list?

By Scratchie on Wed, 10/02/2013 - 6:10pm.

Don't forget "Unwrap your ciggies, throw the cellophane out the car window."

By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 10/02/2013 - 8:52pm.

We should add that to the list, too. Speed at scratching, style points for quality of wax removal and distribution of the scatter, as well as going for scatter distance.

By anon on Thu, 10/03/2013 - 8:50am.

How about the Brighton beer bottle toss?

By John Costello on Wed, 10/02/2013 - 7:02pm.

There has to be a pet cemetery or Massachusett burial ground here. This is the exact same spot, by that I mean right there and a dozen feet out into Boylston Street where the crane collapsed and killed three in 2006.

By Dudley Dan on Wed, 10/02/2013 - 8:18pm.

The Central Burial Ground is across the street. Maybe some bones have shifted with the ground moving over hundreds of years

By anon on Wed, 10/02/2013 - 9:55pm.

Photos aren't showing up in the RSS feed :(

By adamg on Wed, 10/02/2013 - 11:54pm.

Sorry about that; will see what I did wrong.

By Dave on Thu, 10/03/2013 - 10:25am.

How did the butt get through the concrete in the first place?

By Scratchie on Thu, 10/03/2013 - 10:29am.

I don't know, maybe it explains that in the article.

By Dave on Thu, 10/03/2013 - 10:33am.

Actually it does, on a closer reading. I knew we had hollow sidewalks, but never knew that they were supported by wooden joists.

By anon on Thu, 10/03/2013 - 1:07pm.

What other kind is there?

By anon on Thu, 10/03/2013 - 4:05pm.

Even when smokers stamp out their butts, have you ever seen one pick it up?

Do they sell butt pouches for people who want to do the right thing?