Assistant Chief Jim Eden Lee’s Summit Fire Department
1001 SE Hamblen Road Tribune Photo / Fred Pose
On Thursday, August 23, 2012 at 12:26 p.m., the Lee’s Summit Fire Department responded to a reported mulch fire next to Perkin’s Restaurant at 1001 SE Hamblen Road. Multiple callers reported a fire burning in the mulch and vegetation next to the building.
When the fire department arrived, a small fire was burning in the landscaping next to the front door of the building. The building had been evacuated.
Firefighters quickly extinguished the fire in the mulch and removed a portion of the exterior wall to expose a fire that had spread up the wall approximately 6 feet in the insulation between the siding and the inside wall. The fire was out by 1:01 p.m..
The fire was contained to the landscaping and a small portion of an outside wall. There was no damage to the inside of the building and the restaurant was allowed to reopen after the fire.
The cause of the fire was determined to an improperly discarded cigarette.
The Lee’s Summit Fire Department wants to remind everyone that the dangerously dry conditions have greatly increased the risk of fire. Departments across the metropolitan area are responding to numerous fires started by improperly discarded cigarettes. If you smoke, dispose of cigarettes only into metal containers or other types of approved ashtrays. DO NOT throw them out of vehicles, into landscaping, flower pots (potting soil contains materials that can smolder and burn), or yards- even if you think they are out!
Homeowners and businesses can protect themselves by providing appropriate containers for smokers to properly dispose of smoking materials and by removing combustible mulch and vegetation from around homes and buildings.
