A 60-watt bulb was hot enough to set a holiday decoration on fire at Williams College. Fire Chief Craig Pedercini is asking residents to take care with flammable decorations.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — With October comes the advent of the holiday season.

 

And when there are holidays, there are decorations and the potential for fire hazards.

 

At Wednesday's meeting of the Prudential Committee, Fire Chief Craig Pedercini related an incident that came in Tuesday night from a building on the Williams College campus.

 

A 60-watt light bulb in an electric window "candle" was too close to a Halloween-themed plastic window covering. The heat from the light bulb ignited the sheet of plastic.

 

Fortunately, he said, the plug of the bulb had a fuse that was tripped, helping to keep the fire from growing. But the lesson was clear.

 

"It's great to decorate your homes," Pedercini said. "But I'd caution everyone about using candles and lights and getting them too close to combustibles.

 

"That could have been a lot worse than it was."

 

Fortunately, the fire was extinguished quickly, largely because the building's alarm system functioned properly, Pedercini said.

 

Wednesday's meeting was even less eventful, as the committee, which oversees the fire district, received an update on the $15,500 building repair project it OK'd at an Oct. 5 special meeting.

 

The district contracted with Boino Masonry to repair structural deficiencies in the columns supporting the garage bay doors on the front (Water Street) side of the fire house.

 

Pedercini told the committee that the department will be able to use the bay doors during the repair project. He plans to leave two engines outside during the day for convenience sake, but bring them inside at night during the project, which likely will take about a week.

 

Pedercini said he and his officers have determined that they will be able to move trucks in and out of the station around the 4-inch support columns that Boino plans to place around the center column holding up the roof of the station.

 

Pedercini said building permits have been submitted with the town to do the work, and he hopes to see work get under way as soon as next week.

 

Prudential Committee Chairman John Notsley recommended — and his colleagues agreed — that the district should have the contractor look at replacing a walk-in door at the front of the station while it is doing the structural work. The current door is not insulated, Notsley pointed out.

 

"While we're doing [the structural work], I think now is the time to do it," he said. "It appears we're going to be here for a while."

 

Notsley, who serves on the joint town-fire district Public Safety Building Study Committee, told the Prudential Committee that there was no news to report on the PSBSC's efforts to look at a possible police-fire facility to replace the outdated fire house and the police facilities at Town Hall.

 

In other business on Wednesday, district Clerk Treasurer Corydon Thurston reported that initial reports on the district's annual audit are positive. He expects the auditor to come to the committee's Nov. 18 meeting to give her formal report.