An alert District Fire Chief discovered a porch fire on Saturday morning, July 8 preventing what could have been a serious fire. District Chief Robert McCarthy, working out of the Highland Avenue fire station, smelled smoke around 930 Saturday morning while doing paperwork in his office. After investigating, McCarthy spotted smoke coming from a third floor, wooden rear porch at 271 Highland Avenue. Firefighters alerted the occupant of the fire and were quickly able to extinguish burning materials on the porch.

The cause of the fire is believed to have been sunlight reflecting off a metal bowl which ignited combustible materials stored on the porch. The fire was confined to materials burning on the porch and there was no damage to the structure.

— Somerville Fire Department