What's That Smell?

On the drive back from shopping, somewhere around Dunkin Donuts on Loudon Rd. I began to smell smoke.

As I continued down the hill towards the arena the smell was so strong that I had to close all the car windows. I can't be certain because it's dark but I'm pretty sure there was the haze of smoke. As I drove on I was looking around for emergency lights or the light from a fire but nothing was visible.

The smell reminded me of a trash fire or something of that nature and the large area that I could smell it made me think it was serious.

Somewhere around the intersection of 93 a Concord police cruiser passed going the opposite way so at that point I figured that they might be going to check things out. Actually I thought (due to the intensity of the smell, etc.) that someone must have reported it to the police/fire dept. by that time so there was no need for me to call.

When I got home I decided to call anyway, mainly to ask what the source was, so I called the regular police number (not 911). When I did the woman who answered didn't seem to be aware of the situation and transferred me to the Fire Dept..

Strangely they didn't seem to know anything about it either which was troubling because it had now been close to 15 minutes since I saw the police cruiser driving into the area!

I find it hard to believe that the officer couldn't have smelled the smoke/fumes even if his windows were closed. I also find it disappointing that I was the first one to report something so obvious.

Since then I haven't heard any sirens, which doesn't necessarily mean much, but does mean that there's nothing big going on anyway. I'll be interested to find out what the source was and though I'm tempted to call the Fire Department now I will wait until daytime.

Wait.... my brain just clicked into gear.. (D'oh!) I have a scanner stored [somewhere] that I haven't used since the police started using that 'trunked' system or whatever it's called (you could only hear one side of the conversation, which is annoying). Last I knew the fire communications didn't have that issue. OK, time to search the closets and hook that up..

I'll get to the bottom of this one way or another.....

UPDATE [8/27/09]: Since this incident I've noticed the same smell (albeit not as strong) when passing the Fire Dept. training area next to the Everett Arena, so unless I find out differently I'm going to assume that it's connected with that.