Shortly after 18:00 hours on Saturday, September 19th, Boston Fire began receiving calls for a fire at the Landscape Express located at 415 American Legion Highway. First arriving crews reported fire and smoke showing from an approximately 80+ foot high pile of mulch.
Immediately the companies began to attempt to stretch multiple lines however this was difficult as the closest hydrants were very far away. One line had to be hiked up the back of a mound of debris and through a heavily wooded area and the other dragged a 1/4 of a mile from the far parking lot.
When water was finally able to be delivered multiple ladders including a tower ladder unit were able begin an arial attack on the massive mound of mulch. Sparks, flames and flare ups could be seen for hours erupting from the pile.
Boston Fire Public Information Officer Brian Alkins said, “It’s literally a mountain of mulch.†He elaborated that this was a really tough fire, with multiple area of the pile that were going and that they were having a hard time getting water to it given the location and limited amounts of hydrants.
Finally after hours of putting water on the pile with no end in sight, heavy machinery was able to get onto the mound to begin to tear it down extinguishing the flare ups as they went.
Luckily there were no injuries, and the blaze was successfully extinguished relatively quickly and efficiently. As always a great job was done by all, including BFD but also the EMTs of Boston EMS who stood by and Officers of Boston Police who were on scene to assist with logistics.
