BROOKLINE, Mass. — A Brookline resident is sounding the alarm over rat issues in the town after she claimed her car caught on fire while driving down the highway because of rats burrowing in the engine.
Lily, a town resident of more than three years, told Boston 25 the incident happened a month ago when she and her dog were driving home to Connecticut.
“Right when I started my car, there was kind of a smell to it,” she said Thursday. “It was gross.”
She said the smell got worse the further she drove.
While travelling west on the Mass Pike near exit 117 in Natick, a passerby waved her down and told her to pull over.
“He immediately said, ‘Your car is on fire,” she remembered. “’You’re shooting sparks down the freeway, and you’re smoking like a ton.’”
Her car was towed away from the side of the highway while she and her dog watched from the truck.
The next day, she said her mechanic told her a rat’s remains had been found tangled in a serpentine belt under the hood.
She explained, “So, he had to clean out that dead rat that got stuck, and what caught fire was its nest.”
Ever since, she told Boston 25, she’s been dealing with rats burrowing in her engine while parked in Brookline.
On Tuesday, she ran into another scare while opening the hood of her car.
“I see a tail in my engine, and I kind of slammed it back and jumped back,” she said. “It crawled out from underneath, and maybe 10 seconds after, another one joined as well.”
Lily said she believes three rats were nesting in her car engine.
According to the town of Brookline’s website, 58 rodent sighting complaints were accounted for in September, while 93 were listed for October of this year. The data shows a significant spike in complaints from that month in 2024.
Lily finished, “It’s quite literally dangerous... It just needs to be taken care of by the town.”
A spokesperson from the town’s department of public health and human services told Boston 25 in part:
“While we don’t see the rodent problem as growing, it remains a persistent issue. Addressing it continues to be a priority for both residents and our municipal departments, including the Department of Public Health & Human Services, Department of Public Works, and the Building Department.”
They said this entails:
- Monitoring and treating public property through a collaboration between town staff and a contracted pest management company. Staff from both departments also meet monthly with the pest management company to review complaint data, identify hotspots, and redeploy smart traps as needed.
- Enforcing state sanitary codes and town by-laws on private properties.
- Educating residents and businesses on integrated pest management (IPM) practices.
- Overseeing construction sites to reduce contributing factors of rodent activity.
- Tracking complaints through the BrookOnline system to identify hotspots and respond accordingly.
Once a complaint comes in, the town claims, “an inspector is assigned to investigate the property and surrounding area. If rodent activity is confirmed, any properties found to have contributing conditions such as improperly stored trash or harborage (for example, clutter or debris that provides shelter for rodents) are cited and required to take corrective action. Non-compliance results in further enforceable actions, including fines. In addition to pest control enforcement, Public Works inspectors also focus on monitoring trash conditions and issuing fines to properties that fail to properly maintain trash cans or dumpsters.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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