The Mulch, The Mulch is on Fire

Mulch. Danger. These are two words that don’t appear in the same sentence all too often.

Until now.

Residents of Winthrop House have recently experienced a number of mini-fires in the mulch beds lining Standish courtyard, and while the exact cause of the fires is unknown, unextinguished cigarette butts are high on the suspect list.

Two small conflagrations have been witnessed in the same mulch bed outside Winthrop’s E-entryway in the past month.

The scene of the (alleged) crime is in a prime location for smokers to take a few drags, says amateur firefighter Alexandra M. Fallows ’08, who extinguished one of the fires. But there was something else fanning the flames. Literally: a hot-air vent is located directly above the would-be fire-pit. Fallows witnessed the small but potentially dangerous fire firsthand during a 1 a.m. snack run, and put it out with the help of a bucket of water and some stomping.

Steven J. Wilson ’08, a smoker in Winthrop who was not responsible for the fires, laments the lack of a “Smoker’s Oasis” in Standish courtyard to serve as a cigarette receptacle.

“In the future, they should probably install one to avoid similar incidents,” says Wilson. “Even though I’d miss coming home from the library after a long night and being able to know, after inspecting the ground in front of my entryway, that I did not suffer alone.”

At time of writing, just such an “Oasis” was due to be installed in Standish courtyard the morning of Wednesday, May 2 to extinguish the need for Winthropians to form a volunteer firefighter league.