Update: The Herald has just released a story saying that the fire may have been arson. Laurel Sweet writes, "Sometime prior to the 3:18 a.m. tragedy, the girls’ mother had a fight with another woman, who allegedly threatened the family, sources said." Early this morning, a fire broke out in a home on 6th Street in South Boston. A 14-year-old girl and a 3-year-old were trapped inside on the top floor and died. WCVB reports......

--More fire department turmoil: A panel of union firefighters determined that the alcohol and drugs found in the bodies of firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne in August's Tai Ho Restaurant blaze did not cause their deaths. But the fire commissioner begs to differ. [Boston Globe, background: Bostonist] --While it's good that the mayor is throwing his efforts behind saving Hendry Street from the foreclosure crisis, the housing problems in Dorchester aren't limited to......

Even though the day was so soggy that Wollaston Station flooded for a brief time, a fire broke out in the old Filene's Basement that is above the Downtown Crossing T stop. The fire broke out at 7:00 pm, 50 people were evacuated, and the Downtown Crossing T stop was shut down for 2 hours, between about 7:00 and 9:00. A spokesman for the fire department told the Globe: "Pipe insulation and other materials caught......

--Are you a smoker? House Speaker Sal DiMasi and Senate President Therese Murray are considering raising the cigarette tax. [Boston Globe] --The head of the firefighters union is blaming the press for their current bad reputation. Would it be too terrible of a pun to say, in defense of the media, that where there's smoke, there's fire? [Boston Globe] --An 83-year-old woman was crossing train tracks in Medford when she was hit by an......

--A massive fire that started in an abandoned nightclub and eventually destroyed 14 buildings in downtown Lawrence broke into the national news. In a miracle given the size of the fire, no one was hurt. However, 30 families were displaced. Authorities think the fire is suspicious. The owner, who was in the process of turning the spot into a restaurant, says he has no insurance and that someone "jealous of his success" started it.......

Mayor Thomas Menino will deliver his State of the City address tonight at the Strand Theater in Dorchester. However, the spotlight won't be solely on him--the Firefighters' Union has declared they will protest the event. Firefighters have been working without a contract, and they are arguing with the mayor over whether or not to have random drug and alcohol testing. The dispute arose after two firefighters died in the Tai Ho restaurant fire, and toxicology......

--At least Mother Nature was kind enough to warn us of the impending weather torture with thunder. The Globe kindly reminds you not to drive like a dumbass. [Boston Globe] --Another milemarker in the ongoing battle between the mayor and the Firefighters Union: The union is considering picketing Menino's State of the City speech. [Boston Globe] --Potholes here, potholes there, potholes everywhere! [Boston Herald] --In Freetown, a trucker was killed when a pile of......

--News the Boston Fire Department doesn't need: An anonymous person has accused firefighters of cheating on a promotional test in November. [Boston Globe] --In Hyde Park yesterday, a four-alarm fire that started at Maria's Hair Fashion damaged eight apartments, two restaurants, the salon, and another business. No one was seriously hurt, but this is the second time a salon belonging to the same owner has burned down. [Boston Herald] --Mary Marques, the oldest resident......

--What is the mystery object pictured above? It was spotted off Willow Avenue in Somerville early Friday, and Big Fat Whale was there to capture the thing in motion. [Big Fat Whale] --Tensions among racial groups in the Fire Department and tensions between the firefighters' union and the panel that is supposed to overhaul the department have collided. After the firefighters' union demanded that its members resign from the panel, a black firefighter refused......

--Headline on WBZ: "Storm Fails to Break December Storm Record." While we don't want to be too hard on our local weatherheads, shouldn't that really read "Weatherheads Fail to Predict Size of Storm"? [WBZ] --Civil unions will be legal in New Hampshire as of midnight tonight. Yes! Ceremonies will be "subdued" because New Hampshire isn't exactly the Ramrod crowd. [Boston Globe] --Even though the NFL eventually let their rivals air the Patriots-Giants game Saturday,......

A fire broke out last night at about 7:45 at Charles/MGH. A fire department spokesman told the Globe that "some trash landed on the power lines at the MBTA station and sparked a fire." The fire shut down the Red Line in both directions. The MBTA ran shuttle buses, and the T alert system announced that service was normal at 8:51 pm. Were you there? A member of b0st0n LiveJournal was on board one of......

--After the panic, let's think about the fun aspects of winter--sleighs, end-of-year parties, presents, twinkling lights, and the general atmosphere of coziness. --This just in: The Patriots win, and the world learns that referees are sensitive about snowballs. More from the Redux tomorrow. --In Massachusetts' ongoing effort to get as far ahead of the political primary process as possible, the Globe has endorsed Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee and John McCain as the......

--Another snowstorm is on its way and is expected to have its greatest impact tonight. [WCVB] --Speaking of snow, Bostonist has the temperature and weather-condition icons at the top left of the home page. If you click on that icon, you'll get all the latest weather news. --People got cold in order to protest the heat of global warming during yesterday's Polar Bear Plunge in Concord. [AP/Globe] --Patriots owner Robert Kraft is partnering with......

--An off-duty firefighter was stabbed early this morning in East Boston, possibly for racist reasons. According to WBZ, a firefighter was at Chivas Restaurant last night when he said a group of Hispanic men "they did not want any 'Gringos' at the restaurant and he should leave." Later on, the same men followed him as he drove to the Saratoga Street fire station, and they stabbed him in the chest. His injuries are non-life-threatening. The......

Rock 'N Roll Fashion Show 10 pm, Friday, November 16 Milky Way, Jamaica Plain Directions | Tickets $10 Update: The Milky Way's permit was suspended due to enforcement of the nightclub sprinkler law. However, Carol Downs, one of the owners, said that they will be appealing the fire department's refusal to grant the Milky Way an extension at the sprinkler board. If they don't get the appeal, they'll go to Superior Court. Regarding tonight's event,......

As expected, Mayor Menino is following up after toxicology results showed that late firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne had alcohol and drugs in their bodies. He's put together a three-person panel to review the fire department's policies. The panel consists of "a national fire-code specialist, a doctor who specializes in substance abuse treatment, and the former head of the Massachusetts Port Authority." That in itself is no big surprise, but Bostonist couldn't help noticing......

Update: We spoke to a patient MBTA customer-service rep who said that she didn't know how long Park Street Station would be closed. She said that the decision to reopen it was entirely up to the fire department. Update to the Update: A tipper going from downtown to Cambridge let us know that a red line train actually made it through, and the doors opened at Park Street, so the T appears to be functional......

The story of the drugs and alcohol found in the toxicology results for the bodies of firefighters Warren Payne and Paul Cahill has three threads--the freedom of the press, public safety, and the memory of the firefighters themselves. As noted earlier, all news outlets except WHDH reported yesterday and today about the toxicology results. WHDH couldn't report because Suffolk Superior Court Judge Merita Hopkins silenced them at the request of the firefighters' union. WHDH appealed,......

We saw the following over at the Boston Magazine Blog a few days ago and thought, now this news story is a winner! Then we got distracted by pipes bursting and raining asbestos all over downtown. In Hyannis, a woman dropped off videos at the local library, only she used the drop box. Apparently she was overzealous in making sure those videos were returned, and somehow the bracelets on her arm got snagged in the......

Update: The Globe is now reporting that the Boston Tea Party museum caught fire. It had been closed for renovations. The Globe photographer got close enough to catch some intense flames coming from the museum. The Herald got word from a detail officer that sparks from welders working on the bridge may have set off the blaze. Around noon today, smoke started filling the area around Congress Street Bridge, spewing from an object around the......

Banner week for SFist as the site's new editor introduced himself -- hooray for Brock! While the NY Times weighed in on SF's mayoral race, only SFist had the (insert tongue firmly into cheek) hard-hitting latest on candidate/activist Josh Wolf. Coverage of a protest vs. gentrification spawned a fantastic debate amongst SFist's readers. Finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous: video of a man that confused a Board of Supes meeting with "open mic......

People are feeling jittery again. A strip mall in Ashland was evacuated earlier today – all because of a fax message to a Bank of America that included an awkward ClipArt image of a hand setting off a bomb. Turns out "the fax was sent by a marketing group for a promotion to kick off a special offer from the bank." We're not sure why marketing companies don't think before they fax. Didn't they learn......

--We don't always put fires on the blotter, but a firefighter had bad luck during a Dumpster fire at Boston College early this morning. However, it wasn't fire that hurt the firefighter – it was his department's own truck! The Newton Fire Department arrived to fight the blaze. The BC Heights reports, "While the fire truck was powering the pumps, the vehicle lurched forward, running over the injured firefighter. The truck broke through the fence......

This from WBZ: A two-alarm fire that started at about 8:20 pm shut down the Longfellow Bridge. Trains were stopped, traffic was diverted, and heavy smoke forced the Charles-MGH station to shut down. The MBTA has posted the alert on its website and offered a few terse details: "A homeless man started a fire underneath the Longfellow Bridge. As a result the Boston Fire Department has stopped all traffic. Subway Red Line service is being......

Boston-born Sumner Redstone is everywhere, from The Colbert Report to MGH. Just recently, the Viacom chair made a $35-million-dollar donation to the MGH burn center. Rich people make donations all the time, but there's a reason for the mogul's gift. We knew that the 1979 Copley Plaza Hotel fire damaged Redstone's hand, the appearance of which gave rise to much speculation over at Gawker. The injuries he sustained in that fire nearly killed him, as......

A major fire at One Broadway resulted in injuries, one of them critical. Universal Hub moved fast and posted a report from a woman who works in the building and saw the impact of the smoke inhalation firsthand. They also have a report from someone who was on the Kendall T stop platform and saw lights "flicker and flash and eventually [go] out." CBS4 has video of people describing the smoke, and they also......

Afraid that Boston would succumb to the C line controversy that’s rocked Gothamist commuters the Boston Fire Department told NSTAR to cut power to a couple thousand Bostonians for a short time yesterday evening. MBTA power substation near JFK/UMass Station blew up when gas had leaked into the area where a generator started up to create the power to run trains on the Red Line. MBTA has told commuters that they should expect fewer......