Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Discarded Christmas tree catches fire, lights up car on Seventh Street

@JSMeudt sends along these photos from Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue... where a discarded Christmas tree on the curb apparently caught on fire last night and, well...


You can see what's left of the tree above...



There's a little more about this — as well as other tree fire safety tips — at the Strollerderby blog.

8 comments:

Dave on 7th said...

This actually happened to me on Seventh St about 12 years ago. The funny thing is that when I parked my car I noticed the two trees and thought, " I should take that other space because they're going to scratch my paint job with those trees." Instead, someone lit them on fire and they crakle baked a 1/4 of my car. Luckily, the damage was superficial and nothing more serious occurred. But, ever since then all the old xmas trees on the street have look like potential incendiary devices to me.

Marty Wombacher said...

I blame Gruber MacDougal!

Her, Suzanne76 said...

with the millions of drunk , careless young barhoppers trapsing through our hood, coupled with the extremely narrow size of many of our side streets west of ave A...it is no wonder things catch on fire here.

nygrump said...

it looks like the tree would have been right under the exhaust pipe - could the heat have ignited the dried spruce needles?

Anonymous said...

HAHA, Marty! Good one!

Anonymous said...

Never park on top of or too close to a pile of dry leaves (or xmas tree). Yes, your exhaust system is hot enough to set things on fire.

I'm not saying that is what happened here. But looking at the picture, it could have likely been the case. (Or, some asshat placed a tree under a car.)

Of, course there are other potential causes. The resin in pine trees is flammable and doesn't require much to ignite.

Anonymous said...

Sure hope this is a one off or xmas trees might get a fire dept ban

Her, Suzanne76 said...

I constantly see drunk partygoers discarding still-lit cigarettes as they make their way home to their own neighborhoods ... these people are reckless, why would one have to suspect an exhaust pipe?