By Madison Butkus
Hometown Weekly Reporter
The Westwood Fire Department (WFD) responded to four calls at three different addresses this past Thursday, November 16th. Two of these calls happened to be for the same house on Alder Road as firefighters had originally thought on the first call that the fire had been contained.
The first call came in at around 2:15 pm regarding the residence at 50 Alder Road. While the fire was said to be significant, Westwood Firefighters Local 1994, the firefighters union, said they were able to contain the fire within thirty minutes. They also had the assistance of the Norwood, Walpole, and Medfield departments who responded to the call as well. According to Public Information Officer Carolyn Wade, the fire was called in by the homeowner who stated that there was debris burning on their deck.
Very shortly after this, another small fire was called in for 35 Southwest Park, where CGL Electronic Security, a security system supplier, is housed with its onsite repair facility. This fire turned into a hazardous material situation including a toluene fire. According to Darlene Cancell, editor of the Westwood Minute, “Toluene is a colorless, aromatic liquid, and is commonly used in making paint, paint thinner, fingernail polish, lacquers, adhesives, rubber, and is used in some printing and tanning processes. Mutual aid responses came from Dedham, Canton, and Dover and Sharon fire departments in the Tier 1 Hazmat response.”
After containing both of these fires within the afternoon, Westwood Fire was called again around 8:35 pm for a reignited fire at 50 Alder Road. Flames were reported to have been seen yet again coming out of the residence. Firefighters were able to contain the fire and put it out for good.
A little over a half hour later, at 9:10 pm, another call was received for a fire at a residence home, 65 Mill Street. This house happens to be the historic Daniel Draper house, which many Westwood community members know as a small, white Cape Cod style house that has a historic placard displayed outside. Cancell went on to write, “Reports seem to indicate that flames from the basement eventually spread to the attic. The second alarm fire drew a large mutual aid response, with fire departments from Medfield, Walpole, Dedham, Canton, Needham, and Norwood all sending engines. As Westwood Fire fought to contain the flames at 65 Mill Street, it was concurrently responding to 50 Alder Road.”
According to Wade, this fire was found by the owner upon arrival at the residence and was very difficult to contain due to the old age of the house itself. It took firefighters about an hour to fully put out this Mill Street fire. Additionally, Wade confirmed that there were no casualties at any of these four fires.
