Discarded cigarettes may have caused tree stump fire

MADISON, Wis. — A smoldering tree stump in downtown Madison Saturday afternoon may have been lit by discarded cigarettes, the fire department said.

Department spokesperson Cynthia Schuster said crews were doing routine fire code inspections around the downtown area when they smelled smoke around 2:45 p.m. Firefighters found the cause of the smell to be a smoldering tree stump in the 400 block of North Henry Street.

Firefighters put out a fire that appeared when they tried to open the rotten stump, Schuster said.

Firefighters couldn’t determine an official cause of the fire, they found multiple cigarette butts in the area, she said.

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