Crime & Safety

Fire Burns Hillside Along the Weston-Waltham Line

Fire crews doused flames on the near Hobbs Brook Road, caused delay in MBTA Commuter Rail.

Fire torched the side of a wooded hill along the Weston-Waltham line near Rte. 117 this afternoon, burning about 1-1/4 acres, according to Weston Fire Chief David Soar.

The cause of the fire is not known, said Soar, who would not speculate. When crews arrived they found logs along the ground and the hillside in flames, he said.

The fire reportedly caused delays of 30 to 45 minutes on the MBTA’s Framingham-Worcester commuter rail line, according to the MBTA. The MBTA line runs through a gully near the hill hit by the fire.

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A call from the Boston Properties, which owns the business park at the end of Jones Road in Waltham, reported to fire, but the land appears to be in Weston, over the hill from Hobbs Brook Road.

Electrical wires and an old, unused rail line run through the area near the hill where the fire occurred.

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The flames were knocked down by 2:40 p.m., but crews continued to wet down the burned hillside for an hour afterward, and Soar expected to be out there another hour.

“We are wetting down all the hotspots in case the fire went down in there (the soil),” Soar said.

Weston firefighters were joined by crews from Waltham, Wayland, Lincoln and the Massachusetts Forest Fire Control.

Firefighters doused the flames in 90-degree-plus heat.

“It’s a hot day. You don’t worry about something like this, but you hope you don’t have something like this,” Soar said. “It’s hard on the guys, they are out here in their (fire) turnout gear.”

A tent was set up so firefighters could cool off, Soar said, and the crews were rotated on and off the fire.


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