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Only in Boston: Careless smoker sets sidewalk on fire
By adamg on Wed, 10/02/2013 - 3:10pm
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.
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Comments
If there is ever a Masshole Olympics
The "lit ciggy fling" will have to be one of the events.
self-centered smokers strike again!
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.
I like it
Can we add the "just leave your dunks cup anywhere" to the event list?
Don't forget "Unwrap your
Don't forget "Unwrap your ciggies, throw the cellophane out the car window."
Scratch Ticket Scatter
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.
How about the Brighton beer
How about the Brighton beer bottle toss?
10 Feet on either side of this fire is cursed
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.
Ancient Boneyard
The Central Burial Ground is across the street. Maybe some bones have shifted with the ground moving over hundreds of years
Photos aren't showing up in
Photos aren't showing up in the RSS feed :(
Will check into it
Sorry about that; will see what I did wrong.
How did the butt get through
How did the butt get through the concrete in the first place?
I don't know, maybe it
I don't know, maybe it explains that in the article.
Actually it does, on a closer
Actually it does, on a closer reading. I knew we had hollow sidewalks, but never knew that they were supported by wooden joists.
Careless?
What other kind is there?
Even when smokers stamp out
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?