This morning at 9:17 AM the Westport Fire Department responded to 17 Morningside Drive South, Greens Farms Elementary School for the reported fire on the outside of the building. First arriving fire department units found a fire on the exterior of the building in the area of the natural gas service and requested the additional units to assist. Although school was not in session the school was open as a polling station for today’s presidential election and the building was evacuated by firefighters with the assistance of Westport Police Department. The fire was quickly extinguished with damage being limited to a plastic fence and the surroundinglandscape and the building was quickly reoccupied so that voting could continue. An investigation into the cause of the fire found that the cause was improperly disposed of smoking material.

The Westport Fire Department would like to remind everyone to use care when discarding any smoking material. With the ongoing drought the ground and landscape has dried out enough that brush and forest fires have become a concern. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has set the forest fire danger at “moderate” and given the upcoming forecast the landscape and forests will continue to dry. With this in mind, we would remind everyone to please completely extinguish any discarded smoking material, carefully dispose of any hot charcoal only in a metal can with a tight cover, and obey the local ordinance with regards to open burning.

(Westport Fire Department Press Release)

This news report is made possible by: