Odor Investigation Leads Firefighters To East Side Fire Pit
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Incident Details
A Jenifer Street resident reported she smelled a strong electrical odor in her garage when she got out of her car Wednesday afternoon. She called the Madison Fire Department to investigate.
Firefighters aboard Engine 3 could smell the odor when they first arrived, but they couldn’t identify its origin. They drove around the block to see what they could find.
After seeing smoke coming from the back of a nearby house, firefighters met someone who had been burning a large pile of papers in a backyard portable fire pit. It was determined that the materials being burned were not authorized by Madison city ordinance, and there was not a charged hose line nearby. The individual was also burning materials too close to his wooden deck (fire pits must be at least 15 feet away from buildings and plot lines).
E3’s crew informed the occupant about these violations and gave him a copy of the Madison Fire Department Open Burn bulletin. He then provided firefighters with a garden hose so they could extinguish the fire.