Quincy Gets Fire Scare

Was it that last pair of jeans?

That's what Quincy House residents wondered on Monday, after an overloaded washing machine began to smoke and then set off a fire alarm.

Several Cambridge fire trucks and an ambulance rushed to the scene in a "precautionary response," according to Lieutenant Edward L. Enos of the Cambridge Fire Department.

"We checked it out, and that's what it turned out to be," he said.

Enos said a motor inside the washing machine had burned out, causing a belt attached to the motor to smoke.

The machine "corrected itself," Enos said, and the smoking stopped. No fire ever developed, and there were no injuries.