Firefighters Busy with Mulch Fire, 17 other Calls

The Londonderry Fire Department kept busy with 18 emergency calls on April 24, including a bark mulch fire in the parking lot of Market Basket and a tree that fell onto the roof of a house.

Firefighters rushed to Devonshire Lane on Thursday morning for a large tree that had been uprooted by wind and fell onto a single-family home. The tree caused roof damage, but no injuries were reported.

Londonderry Fire, at 2:45 p.m., responded with two engines to a fire alarm activation in Century Village, about the same time as a bark mulch fire was reported at 34 Nashua Road in the Market Basket parking lot.

Crews at the fire alarm activation were quickly able to determine that the alarm was a malfunctioning alarm and one engine was diverted to the bark mulch fire.

Firefighters found three parking lot islands on fire outside the Market Basket. Crews deployed two hoses and used a portable extinguisher to put out those fires, but at one point, due to high winds, nine parking lot islands caught fire, which prompted a call for more resources.

Fire Chief Darren O’Brien urges the public to use care with disposal of smoking materials.

From Londonderry Fire Department: "Please do not discard cigarettes anywhere except approved ashtrays and receptacles and use extreme caution on days with low humidity and high winds such as today. Wind gusts up to 50 mph and low humidity led the State of New Hampshire Division of Forest and Lands to declare Thursday a “very high” fire danger day."