Preventing Cigarette Fires

4/12/2022 (Permalink)

People frequently will do something even when they know they shouldn’t. One more significant problem is smoking cigarettes inside the home, which increases the risk of starting a fire. We aren’t going to tell you to stop smoking, but we hope you consider not smoking inside the home for the following reasons.

• Overloaded Ashtray
• Smokers commonly sit the ignited cigarette down while inhaling nicotine if they can’t finish it in one sitting. This becomes a potential fire waiting to happen as most ashtrays have some accumulated reminisce of last cigarettes. When you have an ignited cigarette sitting, it collects hot ash, which gets naturally ashed, creating the perfect conditions for a fire. We suggest that if you can’t finish a cigarette, you put it out by lightly pushing the ignited end against a quarter. 
• Catching Z’s with an Ignited Cigarette
• Believe it, or not more people have fallen asleep while smoking than you would think. One in twenty (5%) home fires are started when someone falls asleep with a cigarette still ignited. The scary part is that most of those fires were created at an unsafe distance which doesn’t leave the person with much time to react, causing severe burns and death in some cases. 
• Discarding Properly
• One of the most common fires starts when the person smoking doesn’t properly put out the fire. This includes smoking outside as an ignited cigarette butt can easily ignite a bush.

We understand that it is tempting to smoke inside your property due to winter. We don’t advise this as there are health concerns when smoking inside, but the risk of starting a fire also increases. Knowing the common ways cigarettes create home fires helps you understand how to prevent falling victim to a house fire.