Piles Of Debris After East Boston Casket Company Fire, Demolition

BOSTON, MA — Fire officials are still looking for clues after a nine-alarm fire at a casket factory forced evacuation of an East Boston neighborhood and shut down the MBTA on Friday.

Crews demolished the remains of the New England Casket Co. factory Sunday afternoon, removing the remaining stock of chemicals, said Boston Fire Commissioner Joe Finn.

The MTBA tracks at Orient Heights suffered significant flooding, damaging signal and power equipment, but service resumed by Monday morning.

New England Casket, owned and managed by the Tobia family, was housed in an industrial building at 1141 Bennington St. According to its website, the company's first shop opened near Maverick Square some 77 years ago, and the company moved to its present location after World War II.

The fire appears to have started just before 3 p.m. Friday, and it took 7 1/2 hours to put out the heavy flames. Firefighters stayed overnight to keep watch, and later said it wasn't until early Saturday that the fire was out.

A Boston fire spokesperson said the first alarm was transmitted at 3:05 p.m. and the ninth alarm was transmitted at 6:11 p.m.

"What each alarm means is added manpower to the fire additional Fire engines and Ladder trucks for each alarm transmitted," said Brian Alkins public information officer for the Boston Fire Department.

There were approx 30 companies at the 9 alarm fire. For reference, the city employes 33 engine companies (five of which are trained and staffed to respond to hazardous material, weapons of mass destruction and decontamination incidents) 20 ladder companies, two tower ladder companies and two rescue companies.

Boston Fire department has a maximum of 9 alarms and very rarely asks for other companies to come help fight a fire. According to the state fire marshal's office, there are provisions in the city should Boston need to go above a nine alarm fire, for example "9a, 9b, 9c."

Those are rare.

According to the state fire marshal's office it's common for municipal fire departments to call up to three alarms for a general alarm fire.

Fire departments have "mutual aid" agreements with neighboring towns about what pieces of equipment will come from where as the need and number of alarms grows and the Statewide Mobilization Plan with task forces can be activated once local mutual aid resources are exhausted, such as happened with the Lawrence gas explosions.

More on East Boston 9-Alarm Fire

• 9-Alarm Fire Finally Out At East Boston Casket Factory
• Buses Continue To Replace Blue Line Stops After Boston Fire
• East Boston Fire: Building Had Toxic Chemicals
• Blue Line Back On Track Monday After East Boston 9 Alarm Fire

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