Story Archive

Play With Fire, Expect Burns

Officials in South Yarmouth, Mass., allowed a large bonfire on Bass River Beach on Columbus Day. Promoted as the “cleanest possible burn,” the fire was fueled by shipping pallets — without considering that they’re held together with nails. Officials got the bright idea of raking the beach to get rid of the nails, but that just spread them over a wider area. They put buckets out for people to drop any nails they found, but that still left many thousands of them rusting over the winter on the “pristine stretch of coastline,” ready to stick into bare feet when residents flock in for summer. Town employees were sent out with magnets, which picked up 5-10 pounds of nails, but the magnets weren’t strong enough to get very deep into the sand, so the city borrowed a 400-lb magnet which, in conjunction with a mechanized rake, pulled in nails buried about an inch in the sand. “We’ve made three swipes so far and picked up about 5 pounds of nails,” said town Recreation Department Director Patricia Armstrong. “With six or eight more swipes, we feel we will have gotten the majority of the nails.” (RC/Cape Code Tribune) ...The headline: “Despite Repeated Swiping by City Officials, Residents Still Expect to Get Nailed”.