Engine 50 came off the Tobin Bridge ramp shortly after 11 a.m. last Thursday when the firebox rang. Members of the Winthrop Street firehouse were returning from Chelsea, where they were relieving that city’s firefighters as they fought a nearby blaze. When Engine 50 cleared the underpass, acting officer Dan Smith spotted flames and smoke pouring from the rear of the three-story, wood-framed Washington Street home.
Smith, along with pump operator Eddie Sullivan and pipe man Steve Avellino, who had fought another fire in the North End the night before, were the first to arrive at the two-alarm blaze. While all the occupants were safely out of the house, the intense fire was busy claiming much of the building’s content, Engine 32 and Ladder 9 joined Engine 50 at the scene a few minutes later, and soon afterwards, Engines 4 and 8, Ladder 1, Rescue 1, Division 1, District 3 and Tower Ladder 17 also arrived.
As Smith, Avellino and Ladder 1 firefighter Pat Woods, climbed the ladder to a second-floor window, they were struck by heat and heavy smoke. A crowd of onlookers and reporters watched, as firefighters reached the building’s top floor and began tearing up the walls and ceilings in an attempt to reach the fire below Meanwhile, a disheveled-looking plainclothes police officer shouted at spectators, instructing them to stay on the sidewalk and away from the burning house.
At 12:13 p.m., Deputy Chief Joseph Fine, the highest-ranking firefighter on the scene gave word that the blaze was quelled. In a little more than an hour, it sent two firefighters assigned to Ladder 9 to Massachusetts General Hospital with non-life threatening injuries — Timothy Buckley with a shoulder injury and Andre Bridges with a hurt back. Both were later discharged from the hospital a short while later.
The fire caused $500,000 in damages to the home of Pat and Arlen Walsh at 46 Washington St. and an additional $50,000 in losses to the adjoining dwelling at 48 Washington St.
“It was a total loss”, Smith said,
In a bizarre twist, the cause of the fire that left five homeless was determined to be a squirrels’ nest that caught fire. The animals had built a nest in a vent attached to a heat lamp fixture on the second floor that caught fire, said Boston Fire spokesman Scott Salman.
“The nest made it so the [fixture] couldn’t ventilate and caused it to catch fire,” Salman said.

Edna Kelly, best remembered as a political and community activist and friend to countless Charlestown residents, died suddenly on Jan. 18.
Born in Tewksbury on Feb. 1, 1935, Edna M. (Holbert) Kelly grew up on Monument Square in Charlestown. She attended St. Mary's Parochial School in Charlestown and graduated from Cathedral High School in Boston.
Mrs. Kelly was the loving and devoted wife of Edward F. Kelly and the beloved mother of the late baby Francis Kelly. She was the beloved sister-in-law of William Kelly of Chelmsford, Vincent Kelly of Milton and the late Daniel and Kevin Kelly. Mrs. Kelly was the loving aunt of many nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.
Perhaps the role that Mrs. Kelly is most identified with was as chairperson of the Bunker Hill Day Parade Doll Carriage Parade. For more than 20 years, she served as chairperson of the annual event held at the Training Field.
Longtime friend State Sen. Jarrett Barrios fondly recalled her involvement with the event, which he described as “her pride and joy.”
“It brought the people of Charlestown, the new families along the old families, together and built community,” Sen. Barrios said.
Sen. Barrios said that each year, Family Feud during Bunker Hill Week would pit his team against hers. Regardless of who won the challenge, the Doll Carriage Parade always ended up being the recipient of the prize money. “She wouldn’t let me off the hook,” Sen. Barrios said.
“She supported politicians, organizations and events vocally and with all her heart,” Sen. Barrios said. ”She was one of a kind and one of the best.”
Mrs. Kelly also served as a member of The Old Charlestown Schoolgirls Association, Friends of Monument Square, the Charlestown Historical Society, the Kennedy Center, the Bunker Hill Fundraising Committee and the Bunker Hill Unit 26, American Legion Auxiliary, as well as vice president of the Bunker Hill Monument Association and chairperson of the Charlestown Emergency Fund
Mrs. Kelly is also remembered for her passion for local politics. She was a member of the Charlestown Democratic Committee and acted as a delegate for many years to the Massachusetts State Democratic Convention. In addition, Mrs. Kelly was an at-large representative for the Charlestown Neighborhood Council
Peter Looney, who served as CNC chairman at the time that Mrs. Kelly served on the committee, described her as the voice of the townspeople.
“She was there to speak for the Townies in the town and did a lot of positive things for the quality of life here,” Looney said. “The town has lost one of its best supporters, and she’ll be missed.”
Jim Conway, who served with Mrs. Kelly on the CNC and the Bunker Hill Monument Association, among other organizations, described her as a great leader who was very committed to the community.
For many years, Mrs. Kelly worked in the medical field. She was an office manager for Dr. Sokol before coming to work Dr. Ira Michaelson.
Barbra Kelly, a friend of Mrs. Kelly’s since the two attended St. Mary’s school, worked alongside in Dr. Michaelson’s office and remembers Mrs. Kelly as an infinitely generous individual who never sought any recognition for her good deeds.
“Edna was a very giving person who never spoke about what she gave, whom she helped and how she helped them. She just did it,” Kelly said. “The town will remember her.”
Close friend Bill McCabe said Mrs. Kelly was always thoughtful of patients who visited the offices where she worked, especially the elderly, and would often take the time to drop them a card.
“She gave freely of her time and her possessions,” McCabe said. “She was a grand woman.”
A part of Mrs. Kelly’s daily routine was dining at the Coffee Shop at One Thompson Square with Barbra Kelly and other friends. Lorraine Connolly, owner of the Coffee Shop, first met Mrs. Kelly when she began frequenting the Coffee Shop at its Main Street location in 1975.
Connelly said, “Edna came and went to work. She never missed a day of work. She was just Edna.”
Her coffee mug emblazoned with “the boss” remains at the Coffee Shop as a reminder of Mrs. Kelly and her friendship to the establishment’s employees and regular customers.
Joan Rae, the business manger of St. Francis de Sales Church, had known Rae for over 50 years since Mrs. Kelly babysat for her brother, Paul Beaton. Rae and Edna and Edward Kelly also shared a home in Monument Square for many years.
“She was a wonderful lady, a devoted wife and cherished aunt,” Rae said. Her grandnieces and grandnephews worshipped the ground she walked on, and she was a wonderful friend. She was there for everyone, whether you were her friend or not.”

Now beginning his sixth term in office, State Rep. Eugene O’Flaherty says that his top priorities include directing more resources to Charlestown and launching several new initiatives that would help address some of the biggest problems now facing the community.
As the House Chairman of the Joint Committee on The Judiciary. Rep. O’Flaherty and his staff review roughly 1,000 of the 6,000 pieces of legislature that are introduced each term. Rep. O’Flaherty anticipates the most significant and controversial issues this term are the renewal of the death penalty and the reform of CORI, or “criminal offender record information” — a Massachusetts statute pertaining to the release of criminal records — but he also hopes to introduce other legislature that relate to drug and alcohol abuse, which he deems to be one of Charlestown’s most serious issues.
In an effort to curb substance abuse, Rep. O’Flaherty supports a diversion program that would make treatment available to first-time drug offenders who would otherwise face jail time. “Often [first-time drug offenders] are not treated as people who could benefit from drug programs, they’re treated as criminals,” Rep. O’Flaherty said, emphasizing that drug dealers wouldn’t benefit from this leniency.
Rep. O’Flaherty said additional state funding for treatment programs, like the Charlestown Recovery House, must be made available for this proposal to work. Since his position as chairman of The Judiciary committee allows him to recommend private institutions for state funding, he plans to divert more money directly to the treatment facility.
“We need more beds and funding to set up [the first-time drug offender] program,” he said. “The two need to be done in tandem. One won’t work without the other.”
In addition to the Recovery House, other Charlestown beneficiaries that Rep. O’Flaherty supports are the Life Focus Center, which offers assistance to the mentally handicapped, and Bunker Hill Community College. As a result of legislature introduced by Rep. O’Flaherty and State Sen. Jarrett Barrios, the college was able to secure a $10 million loan to build a gymnasium.
“I try to support institutions in my district,” Rep. O’Flaherty said. “If I can provide state sustenance for their operations, I try to do that.”
Rep. O’Flaherty also hopes to open communication between state and city agencies and the community in regard to environmental issues that impact Charlestown. He points to the proposed wind turbine and the Alford Street catch-basin treatment facility as two recent developments that came as a surprise to residents.
“All of [Charlestown’s representatives] need to have discussions about how we can coordinate the efforts of our office…so we’re not caught off guard by proposals that are going to effect the way our constituents live,” he said.
In the case of the case of the catch-basin facility, Rep. O’Flaherty said its detractors refer to it as a “sludge” facility, while the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, which is overseeing the project, calls it a “dewatering” facility. The truth, Rep. O’Flaherty believes, lies somewhere in the middle.
“We all want the same things. It’s just a question of figuring out what the objectives are,” he said.
Ultimately, Rep. O’Flaherty holds himself accountable to his constituents, whom he described as his “meat and potatoes.” He has maintained a visible presence in Charlestown in an effort to stay apprised of residents’ needs and concerns.
“I instruct my staff that we hold constituent services above all else, including helping people to get housing and employment and just a myriad of other problems they might encounter,” he said. “That’s really the philosophy that has governed the office for the last 10 years, and I think it will continue to do so.”

Is the Back Bay’s loss to be Charlestown’s gain?

Last year, Mayor Thomas M. Menino made a rather bold move to place environmentally sound and technologically advanced “green” trash containers in the Back Bay. The solar-powered compactors hold six times the amount of trash as normal barrels, cannot be knocked over and don’t need to be emptied to the extent that sidewalk-style trash containers must be emptied. Because the trash is constantly compacted in the “green” containers, they do not overflow. The streets and sidewalks are cleaner, and city department managers wanting to make better use of employees can do so because, with the new invention, emptying barrels is no longer an everyday affair.
Not everyone in the Back Bay is welcoming cleaner streets and sidewalks by using an environmentally sound “green” product, however.
The Back Bay Architectural Commission has expressed opposition to the new, bulky green trash compactors known as the Big Belly Cordless Compaction System. The commission doesn’t like the design of the containers and has given the city one year to come up with a new design that is sympathetic to the historic context of the neighborhood.
What is not good for the Back Bay, we believe, would be ideal in Charlestown with some minor modifications. Trash is a problem here. Unsightly dirty sidewalks and gutters tend to muddy the face of this neighborhood. These green trash compactors would do for Charlestown what they have done for Back Bay –— that is to end the overflowing barrel problem, as well as the overturned barrel mess. The labor saving aspects of the product are manifest. It is a simple matrix. More trash goes into one of these green products than six normal barrels. If a normal barrel used by the city has to be emptied every day, common sense tells you that it is conceivable that the green compactors will need to be emptied only once a week.
The BBAC, naturally, is concerned with aesthetics, as residents of Charlestown are concerned with the same thing. With slight modifications to make them more neighborhood-friendly, these green compactors have the possibility of being placed throughout the city’s neighborhoods in an effort to reduce litter.
Although this is clearly an instance where science and technology are more important to a quality of life issue than aesthetics, aesthetics remains important.
We urge the mayor to install a number of these green trash compactors in our neighborhood to see the clear difference.
We also urge the manufacturers of the compactors to either dress them up through the use of clever designs or color to meld with the neighborhoods where they are placed.
This is a solid advance in trash reduction technology. What better place than Boston to start a nationwide trend?


A squirrel’s nest

It is difficult to imagine that over $500,000 worth of fire damage to two townhouses that were gutted on Washington Street last week was caused by a squirrel’s nest in a ventilation shaft. Yet, this is exactly what occurred.
Last Friday’s fire proved the value of fire prevention. As firefighters and reporters were converging on the scene, with smoke billowing from the top of the burning buildings, the high squealing pitch of the building’s smoke detectors could be heard long after firefighters began breaking windows, cutting holes in the roof and pouring streams of high pressure water onto the flames.
Also notable is the efficiency and teamwork of Boston firefighters who brought the fire under control in about an hour, and Boston Police, who cordoned off the area to keep onlookers away.