Simultaneous Dumpster Fires Reported In The Early Morning Hours Tuesday In Downtown Concord: Video

CONCORD, NH — Concord police and firefighters are investigating two early morning dumpster fires downtown on Tuesday.

Just after 12:15 a.m., Concord fire and rescue teams were sent to the intersection of Theatre and Storrs streets for a report of a dumpster fire. After firefighters arrived, the commander told dispatch firefighters saw a second dumpster fire, on their way to the first. They said this one was on South Main Street.

Hearing the scanner chatter, an officer headed to the first fire.

The second fire was reported at the Mobil gas station at 81 S. Main St. around 12:30 a.m.

Firefighters knocked down the first fire and cleared EMTs from the scene to go to South Main Street.

News 603 posted a video from the calls on Facebook.

Around 12:45 a.m., the watch commander dispatched additional police officers to the downtown area to search for arson suspects and assist in investigating the incident.

“We’ve got a couple of other units checking around,” one officer said.

Firefighters on South Main Street extinguished the second fire while checking for exposure to trees and a diesel tank at the gas station, according to scanner chatter.

Firefighters and police cleared the South Main Street scene just after 1 a.m.

One officer spoke about Christopher Blodgett, a homeless man now located in Concord, who has been charged with arson and arson threats several times. A second officer replied, “He’s out of the game.” A third officer chimed in, “He’s already been charged with arson tonight (and) is up at the jail.”

Blodgett is the homeless man often seen at the intersection of Hall and Water streets, screaming at cars or banging the street signs. Despite his condition, previous accusations of threatening to set fires and blow things up, being arrested dozens of times, and being a clear danger to the community, no one has been able to place him in a psych ward bed, as he has requested, or hold him at county until one can be found for him.

Police ran several checks on people downtown but did not appear to make any arrests connected to the dumpster fires.

Around 2 a.m., a man and a woman were arrested on the Manchester Street bridge on active warrants with high cash bail or no bail. Both were taken to the county jail.

Concord NH Patch will update this post when more information becomes available.

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