davis_square | Car Fire: Highland Ave @ Conwell St.

Fire: or rather cars on fire and exploding under the lofted concrete apartment building (270 Highland Ave). About 6 firetrucks, and all manners of Somerville/Medford Responding.

Woke up at a little before 2am to smashing of windows and general mayhem, and looked out the window and saw flames reflected in the house across the street. Heard more explosions, and called 911, ran outside, and saw the cars on fire in the parking lot under the building overhang. Still more explosions as the firefighters worked to put out the fires. It looked as if some part of the building lobby may have caught fire, or it could have just been flaming debris obscured by smoke.

There were reports of someone fleeing the scene, running down Highland towards Porter St., but other observers, noted he was just watching the fire, and bolted when the car started exploding.

The fire has been put out and people are loitering around in their pajamas... Nobody seemed to be hurt - The Cataldo Ambulance crew and gurney were unused at present observation. News cameras are present -- so we'll probably see this with more details on the TV tomorrow.

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We're on the top floor as well and our alarms in our actual apartment never went off...

I didn't have a fan on and couldn't hear the alarm... I woke up because of the exploding tires and sirens...

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All of you should report the lack of alarm to the fire department, so they can do a proper inspection.

I didn't notice the alarm either, I didn't even know anything had happened at all until I left this morning. I actually spoke to the landlord who said that if we had gone out in the hall we would have been able to hear the alarms, and that there are 2 separate alarm systems, a building one and one for each apartment, which could explain why many of us slept through it. Still worrisome though.

I'm glad no one was hurt and I think I'm also kind of glad I didn't wake up to a fire alarm since cat-wrangling and panic would have ensued.

I just spoke to the landlord as I saw him outside the building. According to him, each unit has a smoke detector right by its door, and the smoke just hadn't penetrated the building enough to set off the individual ones. I also spoke to another girl who slept through the whole thing.

The alarm did wake me and my boyfriend (or maybe it jsut woke him and him waking woke me), but my roommate who has a windowless room and had the door shut did not hear it. It's sort of unnerving. The thing is, the alarm is blazingly, painfully loud when you are in the hallways. I can imagine it might be borderline dangerous for it to be louder? We just have really well-insulated walls I guess, which is something I'm *normally* grateful for...

haha I'm the girl who slept through the whole thing. My unit is in back though, which is my only pathetic excuse.

oh, and they are investigating for arson, so we'll know eventually whether it was or wasn't.

Hah, hi there.

The fact that my roommate would have slept through it if I'd been at my boyfriend's is pretty creepy, too. Obviously you're not the only one!

My roommate found this from the City of Somerville, Fire Dept, Fire Prevention Bureau:

"A building with six or more units is required to have a low voltage system (fire alarm panel) which generally consists of a series of detection and annunciation devices throughout the common areas and electrically interconnected smoke detectors within the apartments (527 CMR 24). Either the Captain or Deputy Chief accompany Monty during these inspections."

notice... WITHIN THE APTS

http://www.somervillelocal76.org/?zone=/unionactive/view_page.cfm&page=Fire20Prevention2FSafety20Tips

Under Firefighter Bob "Monty" Doherty

The code you mentioned states that the smoke detectors in the apartment need to be on the same electrical system as the building smoke detectors. It does not appear to state that triggering of the common area smoke alarm triggers individual apartment smoke alarms, although it does appear to imply visa versa.

Regardless, I would encourage anyone in this building (or any other) to double check witht he SFD that their building passed the last fire inspection. Moreover, older structures are often times not governed by newer codes grandfathered in).

The actual text is here: http://www.mass.gov/Eeops/docs/dfs/osfm/cmr/cmr_secured/527024.pdf
The Mass State Building Code (780 CMR, Chapter 9 http://www.mass.gov/Eeops/docs/dps/BuildingCode/780009.pdf is a better resource for current requirements, though existing buildings are typically grandfathered.

Smoke detectors are required within the apartments. They are not required to set off the common building alarm. They are also local units, usually - not alarm devices for the main building fire detection system. Most buildings that have a common fire alarm system don't have horns or strobes in the apartments.

is a windowless room legal?

You know, I think in this case it's meant to serve as an office, technically, but it has a closet, so it functions pretty nicely as a bedroom, and technically its door is no further from the hall alarm than in the larger bedroom. At any rate, the management is aware it's used as a bedroom as they rent it out to two unrelated people so I doubt it's illegal.

funny story about windowless rooms:

My college dorm in art school was a converted warehouse... and while one room along the wall had plenty of light -- the law required that all sleeping rooms had windows/sunlight... so each of the walls was 50% wall and 50% glass. The partition ended right where the top bunk began...and you could see straight through the entire suite - with minimal visual or aural privacy.

Car Fire: Highland Ave @ Conwell St.

Re: Did anyone else NOT notice the fire alarm?

Re: Did anyone else NOT notice the fire alarm?

Re: Did anyone else NOT notice the fire alarm?

Re: Did anyone else NOT notice the fire alarm?

Re: Did anyone else NOT notice the fire alarm?

Re: Did anyone else NOT notice the fire alarm?

Re: Did anyone else NOT notice the fire alarm?

Re: Did anyone else NOT notice the fire alarm?

Engineer here

Re: Did anyone else NOT notice the fire alarm?

Re: Did anyone else NOT notice the fire alarm?

Re: Did anyone else NOT notice the fire alarm?

Re: Did anyone else NOT notice the fire alarm?