to see how Framingham residents are managing. We assure them we are in good
shape due to our outstanding Framingham Public Service Employees. The Police
keep us informed through reverse 911, the Department of Public Works clears our
roads and the Fire Department stands ready for the most serious threat of all -
fire.
Usually we are eager for Spring to arrive so we can get outside and work
in our yards. There has been frightening information about fire danger
threatening our community from local landscape businesses that store or
manufacture mulch and related wood materials. As the attached pictures show,
large piles of mulch with all the heat they generate can combust easily and
spontaneously. Mulch can reach temperatures of 400 degrees centigrade.
There are serious concerns about Landscape Depot, Inc. which is located at
350 Irving Street for these reasons:
1. In the last 4 years, the Framingham Fire Department has responded to 14
incidents of mulch fires at Landscape Depot. It is unknown how many fires
occurred that were not reported.
2. Landscape Depot’s mulch piles are sitting on a 20 acre Superfund site where
there are highly flammable coal tar lagoons with a flash point of 200 degrees
centigrade (International Chemical Program).
3. These lagoons are floating on highly combustible peat bogs, one of the
oldest known fossil fuels (GZA report - Page 21 July 2, 2012). Peat has an
auto ignition temperature of 260 degrees centigrade. (Canadian Sphagnum MSDS).
4. Peat bog fires can last for decades and some have forced residents to
evacuate.
5. Massachusetts fire regulations require places that store 2500 cubic feet of
“combustible material” about as much as would fill a big living room, to get a
permit after an inspection by the local fire department. Landscape Depot has
NO permits at all, not even to conduct their business.
6. The property at Landscape Depot has no public or private water supply. When
fires break out, the Framingham Police Department has had to stop traffic on
Irving Street in order for the Fire Department to access the hydrant on the
other side of the street. DPW has also been called on to help extinguish the
fires by moving the mulch piles.
7. Landscape Depot is imposing health hazards on its workers, our Public
Service employees and the thousands of residents in the densely populated
neighbors of Precincts 16 and 17.
8. A large scale fire at this contaminated site would emit dangerous plumes of
smoke and gases. Should the peat bog ignite, the combustible materials would
burn beyond control.
Unregulated activity at Landscape Depot presents an imminent danger to our
entire community.
For additional information, please go to:
http://framinghammatters.blogspot.com/2015/01/much-about-mulch.html
from George Lewis, Judith Grove, Thomas Grove, William LaBarge, Lloyd Kaye