Where There's Smoke There's Fire
On March 6, 2010 at approximately 6:30 PM residents of a Tucson, Arizona neighborhood were alarmed when black smoke began pouring out of the storm drain inlet and manhole in their residential neighborhood. Several people called in to report that fire was coming from a manhole in the residential neighborhood and the sheriff’s department was dispatched to investigate. Several other residents called after seeing the thick smoke and stating that they thought a house was on fire somewhere in the neighborhood. Upon arrival by the sheriff’s department the deputy noticed that there was smoke coming from a drainage wash area running north-south and from the housing development directly to the east of the wash. As the deputy got closer to the wash he noticed that flames we coming out of the 36-inch HDPE storm drain pipe that emptied into the bottom of the wash. A second deputy arrived in the neighborhood where heavy smoke was coming out a storm outlet and manhole that were connected upstream of the HDPE pipe that emptied into the wash.
