Fanning the flames

Thank you for writing about people going up in smoke at Asheville Mortuary Services [“Where There’s Smoke …,” The Buzz, April 2]—which was licensed in 2005—only a few blocks from the Biltmore shopping area. Those who reported the bodies’ ash and smoke are not blowing hot air. I first saw the dense black smoke aggressively billowing from the building a few months ago. I was mortified.

Reading your article, I am inflamed that smoke from cremations is allowed to come out of a building without better filtration. Call me skeptical, but I am dubious that the fat folks are the primary cause of the increase in heavy smoke. Additionally, it is a pity that the obese are stigmatized even as they are torched into the next world.

Put this in your pipe and smoke it: The smoke is a real irritant, not to mention unsightly. I hope that the air-quality engineer can smoke out the problem and find more than an increase-in-body-mass issue. Otherwise, who knows who might get burned for this?

— Anna Gomez
Asheville

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