A fire that ignited in a garage on Harrison Street in Concord late Thursday night was caused by the spontaneous combustion of oily rags, officials said Friday.
Concord Deputy Fire Chief Sean Brown said the rags were not properly disposed of in the single-vehicle garage at 7 Harrison St., which was used by the homeowners primarily for storage purposes.
“That’s a compact neighborhood with buildings close together, so fortunately the crews were aggressive and quick to extinguish the fire before there was any extension,” Brown said.
The fire was reported Thursday at 10:40 p.m. by a neighbor who lives across the street and saw the flames out her window. Roughly 16 minutes later, city firefighters had knocked down the fire and begun checking for any hot spots.
“There was some gasoline in there that took some extra effort to extinguish,” Brown said.
The garage, which is roughly 12-by-20 feet, sustained significant damage and is likely not worth repairing, Brown said.
There were no reported injuries.
“We want to remind people that it’s important when discarding rags with petroleum-based products to do so in a sealed metal container with some water because they can spontaneously combust at anytime,” he said.