Crime & Safety

Discarded Ash Leads to Fire

The Naugatuck Fire Department reminds residents to safely discard of ash.

Someone discarded hot ash from a fireplace near a backyard compost pile, causing a fire that spread to a motor vehicle on Candee Road early Wednesday morning.

The Naugatuck Fire Department responded to 35 Candee Road after receiving a call of a car fire at 2:15 a.m. because the Jeep was fully engulfed as the fire had spread to the gas tank. The Jeep is a total loss, but nobody was injured and flames did not spread to trees or homes.

“It was pretty intense when we got there,” Fire Captain Richard Alfes said. “The fire was right next to a row of very large pine trees about 40 feet high and a children’s playscape made of wood.”

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The fire department brought two engines and tapped into a nearby hydrant before dumping close to 4,000 gallons of water on the Jeep and the nearby compost pile. They knocked down the-flames within five minutes, Alfes said, and soaked the compost pile, which was about three feet high and fairly wide.

Alfes said he believes the fire was accidental.

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The man who dumped the ash said it was about two days old. Firefighters recommend putting ash in a metal container and placing it far away from the home before soaking it.

During the incident, two of Naugatuck’s mutual aid partners, Waterbury and Beacon Falls, sent fire trucks to man the Naugatuck stations.


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