Fire damages MSPCA


John Ruch

S. HUNTINGTON AVE.—A small fire in a storage room at the headquarters of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) broke out late on the night of Feb. 19 and damaged some old documents.

It was the second small fire at the MSPCA’s 350 S. Huntington Ave. facility in two years, and Boston Fire Department (BFD) investigators have not yet determined its cause, according to BFD spokesperson Steve MacDonald.

The Feb. 19 fire was in a fourth-floor storage room, “as far away as you can get from the animals” at the organization’s attached Angell Animal Medical Center and shelter, said MSPCA spokesperson Brian Adams. No humans or animals were injured.

The fire damaged some old documents dating from the early 1900s to around the 1990s, Adams said. “We haven’t seen anything of great historical value” among the lost papers, he said.

BFD estimated the damage at $10,000. But, Adams said, the MPSCA is still making its own determination. Most of the damage was from smoke and from water that ran through ceilings all the way to the basement, Adams said.

The previous fire was on March 3, 2008. It burned historical archives on the small fifth floor of the headquarters, causing about $25,000 in damages. It was ruled an accidental electrical fire.

The MSPCA was founded in 1868 and is the country’s second-oldest animal humane society.

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