Melting flower pot starts Swampscott fire

SWAMPSCOTT – Anybody might expect flowers to wilt during days with triple-digit temperatures; but catch on fire?”It looked like a flower pot melted and caught on fire, and the porch was then on fire and railing on fire on our arrival,” said Swampscott Fire Department Captain Remo Zimbaldi. “Everybody’s fine, everybody was taken out of the building ? there were no problems at all, it was a quick knockdown. The guys did a great job, especially in this heat.Neighbors reported a fire on a second-story rear porch at 168 Humphrey St. at 4:01 p.m. Friday, according to the Swampscott Fire Department. Tenants in four residential condos and employees of three businesses safely evacuated the building across from Anthony’s Pier 4 as fire, police and medical personnel responded, according to the department and witnesses.”Unfortunately, we did not grab ice cream or a drink because that would have helped,” said Kell’s Kreme employee Olivia Barba as she sought shade while waiting for fire officials to clear the scene.Swampscott Fire Department Lieutenant Bob Surette said that the fire appears to have started when a plastic flowerpot in a corner of the porch melted and then ignited the bottom of the porch railing. The flames traveled along the bottom rail and up the spindles of the railing, also igniting the composite decking. He and Zimbaldi credited the quick response of local firefighters with preventing the fire from spreading to the flat rubber roof underneath the porch or across the length of the approximately 30-foot-by-15-foot porch.John McKenney, the tenant of the unit where the fire started, said that the damage was relatively minor and would be inexpensive to fix. He couldn’t identify the flowers that were planted in the pot but didn’t think any gardening decisions were responsible for the container’s melting.” I guess that’s what happens when it gets to be 100 degrees,” he said.