A fast-moving overnight blaze tore through a salvage lot in Templeton early Thursday, torching roughly 60 vehicles at Insurance Auto Auctions' Baldwinville Road facility and sending thick black smoke into the sky for miles. The fire was reported just before 2 a.m., and crews worked through the early morning to knock down the flames. No injuries have been reported.
Video From A Sea Of Burning Cars
Video from the scene showed long rows of cars fully engulfed, with explosions of flame rolling through the tightly packed vehicles and a towering column of smoke rising above the rural neighborhood. According to NBC Boston, the Templeton Fire Department estimated that about 60 vehicles were burning. An auto auction had been scheduled at the site for 8:30 a.m., and the cause of the fire remained unclear. The station also reported that there were no injuries.
Local television crews broadcast live images as firefighters attacked the inferno with ladder trucks and aerial streams, sweeping water across the lot from above. WCVB posted early video and updates as crews worked to contain the blaze before sunrise.
What Burned At The Templeton Yard
The fire broke out at IAA's Templeton branch at 223 Baldwinville Road, a roughly 55 acre facility the company opened in 2019. In a company release carried by Nasdaq, IAA describes the Templeton site as a significant expansion of its footprint in Massachusetts. Local property assessment records also list Insurance Auto Auctions at that address, according to the Town of Templeton.
Why Salvage Lot Fires Turn Nasty Fast
Salvage yards are notoriously difficult places to fight fires. Vehicles are stored bumper to bumper and packed with materials that fuel intense, dirty burns, including gasoline and diesel, motor oil, transmission fluid, plastics, upholstery, and batteries. Once flames get into a row of cars, they can travel quickly and generate dense, potentially hazardous smoke.
Federal testimony and safety research have also highlighted increasing risks from lithium ion batteries and thermal runaway in modern vehicles, a problem that can make auto yard fires hotter, more persistent, and harder to fully extinguish. Similar Insurance Auto Auctions yard fires in other states in recent years have burned through dozens of vehicles before crews could get the upper hand.
As of early Thursday, officials had not released additional details on how the Templeton fire started or what would happen to the auction that had been set for later that morning. NBC Boston reported that further information was not immediately available.
