LYNN — The fire department warned residents on Monday not to burn trash, set fires outside, or carelessly dispose of cigarettes following a weekend in which they were called to 10 separate fires throughout the city.
District Chief Joseph Zukas said that Lynn firefighters responded to two house fires this weekend, one at Tilton Place Saturday night and one at 16 Northside Ave. Sunday morning.
The Tilton Place fire, which Zukas described as an electrical house fire, led to two firefighters being hospitalized with heat exhaustion. The subsequent fire at 16 Northside Ave. was caused by improper disposal of a cigarette.
In addition to the two house fires, Zukas said that there were seven outdoor fires and one car fire over the weekend. He said that many of the outdoor fires were caused either by illegal fire pits, or improper cigarette disposal.
“A lot of the outside fires were in mulch or rubbish, or trash, so, several of the outside fires were caused by careless disposal of cigarettes. We have a lot of fires caused by people who will just flick cigarettes in a mulch area,” Zukas said. “People need to be careful with cigarettes, cigarettes remain a large part of fires … if you’re going to smoke on your back porch, ash your cigarette in a cup of water or an ashtray, or something that’s not flammable.”
Zukas also said that even though the law often goes unenforced, fire pits and outdoor fires are illegal in the city.
“A lot of the fires were from people burning trash in their backyard. The city of Lynn does not allow any outside burning. Any of these fire pits are illegal in the city of Lynn. Just because you can buy them at Home Depot does not mean you can use them in the city of Lynn,” Zukas said. “A lot of people have them, and they sit by them at night, and we don’t usually bother people unless the neighbor complains about it, then we’ll go and ask them to put it out. But, you cannot burn trash in the city of Lynn and the outside fire pits are illegal in the city of Lynn.”
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at [email protected].
