The Boston Fire Department contained and extinguished a fire Tuesday morning on the third floor of 15 South Point Drive, a 7-story building in the Harbor Point apartment complex just north of campus.
Nobody was injured in the blaze, but two residents from the burnt apartment were displaced, according to the Fire Department. Investigators determined the fire was caused by “accidental careless disposal of smoking materials,” according to an incident report obtained by The Mass Media.
The source of ignition was a discarded cigarette that set nearby trash ablaze, and subsequently, the rest of the bedroom. Harbor Point does not allow smoking.
BFD Public Information Officer Brian Alkins said firefighters quickly contained the fire to one room. The report indicates $10,000 of property damage and $10,000 of damage to the building’s contents. The apartment directly below sustained water damage, with water found in an electrical panel. Firefighters also forced open the doors to apartments on either side of the fire.
According to Alkins, the call came in at 7 a.m., and more than nine fire trucks responded to the fire, including four engines, three ladder trucks, one tower truck and one rescue truck. The first unit arrived at 7:05 a.m., according to the incident report. Firefighters from Engine 21 extinguished the fire while other units searched the building for residents and secondary fires.
The department said the building’s smoke detectors operated correctly, alerting residents to the fire. A representative of CMJ Management Company, which manages the Harbor Point on the Bay complex, declined to comment.
Discarded smoking materials are the leading cause of deadly residential fires, causing approximately 560 deaths per year, according to the National Fire Prevention Association, a nonprofit organization that writes fire safety codes adopted by governments around the world, including Massachusetts.
“Typically, abandoned or discarded smoking materials ignite trash, mattresses and bedding, or upholstered furniture, with the majority of fatal smoking-related fires starting in the bedroom, living room, family room or den,” the NFPA wrote on its website.
The NFPA said that 80% of fire fatalities are from residential fires. Due to the materials from which modern buildings and home furnishings are made, fires spread quickly and produce highly toxic smoke. “Experts say you may have [as] little as two minutes (or even less) to safely escape a typical home fire from the time the smoke alarm sounds,” the NFPA wrote.
Four district chiefs, one deputy division chief, one safety division chief and a handful of special units, including a drone and the department’s mobile command center, were also present. The last firefighters left at 8:21 a.m. after ventilating smoke from the building.
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