May 06, 2011
By: Carrie Van Brunt-Wiley
Reports say a fire that started after a worker in Boston's Commercial Wharf tossed a lit cigarette caused damage that will cost a property insurance company $3 million.
Steve MacDonald, spokesman for the Boston Fire Department, told reporters a worker taking a smoke break in the early morning hours on a second-floor balcony of the office building flicked the cigarette away after he was finished. An investigation showed that disposal directly led to a three-alarm fire that destroyed much of the building, which housed several law offices.
"The place is a total loss, and the property owners are going to have to make some decisions about the building itself," MacDonald told the Boston Globe.
The report added several firefighters suffered minor burns while battling the blaze. The person who tossed the cigarette has not been identified.
As the building is located along Boston's waterfront, several firefighters donned diving gear and fought the fire from the water, reported the Boston Herald.
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