Print
Share page with AddThis

Smoking and Fires

Fire Safety Education

Sitting in your favorite chair and having a cigarette after dinner seems to some like a great way to relax - but cigarettes and relaxing can be a deadly mix. Falling asleep while smoking can ignite clothing, rugs and material used in upholstered furniture. Using alcohol and medications that make you sleepy compounds this hazard.

Careless smoking is the leading cause of fire deaths and the second leading cause of  injuries among people ages 65 and older. Cigarettes continue to burn when they are not properly extinguished. When a resting cigarette is accidentally knocked over, it can smolder for hours before a flare-up occurs. Before you light your next cigarette, remember:

  • Put your cigarette or cigar out at the first sign of feeling drowsy while watching television or reading.
  • Use deep ashtrays and put your cigarette all the way out.
  • Never smoke in bed.
  • Don't walk away from lit cigarettes and other smoking materials.
  • Don't put ashtrays on the arms of sofas or chairs.

CARELESS SMOKING

More than 4,000 Americans die each year in fires and more than 25,000 are injured. Many of them might be alive today if they had only had the information they needed to avoid a disaster.

DID YOU KNOW?

  • Eighty percent of all fire deaths occur in the home.
  • Careless smoking is the leading cause of fire deaths!
  • Deaths due to fires caused by careless smoking are particularly avoidable.
  • Having a working smoke alarm more than doubles one's chances of surviving a fire.

Following these simple fire safety tips can boost survival rates dramatically.

CARELESS SMOKING LIFE-SAVING TIPS

  • Never smoke in bed. Replace mattresses made prior to the 1973 Federal Mattress Flammability Standard.
  • Don't put ashtrays on the arms of sofas or chairs.
  • Use large ashtrays with wide lips. While smaller ashtrays may be more attractive, they are not safe. Cigarettes can roll off the edge, and ashes can easily be blown away.
  • Empty ashtrays into the toilet or an airtight metal container. Warm ashes dumped in waste cans can smolder for hours, then ignite.
  • Don't leave cigarettes, cigars or pipes unattended.
  • Put out all smoking materials before you walk away.
  • If you begin to feel drowsy while watching television or reading, extinguish your cigarette or cigar.
  • Close a matchbook before striking and hold it away from your body. Set your cigarette lighter on "low" flame to prevent burns.
  • If friends or relatives who smoke have visited, be sure to check on the floor and around chair cushions for ashes that may have been dropped accidentally.
  • In case of a fire, stay low to the ground, beneath the smoke, and have an escape plan already worked out.
  • Install a smoke alarm on every level of your home. Test the batteries every month and change them at least once a year.

SAFE SMOKING

  • Try to quit again.
  • For health and fire safety reasons, permit smoking outside only.
  • Use large ashtrays with center rests so cigarettes fall into the ashtray not on the floor.
  • Smokers should keep lighters on their person, not on the table or in a purse where children can find them.
  • Never smoke in homes where oxygen is in use.

MATCH AND LIGHTER SAFETY

  • Purchase child resistant lighters.
  • Keep all matches and lighters out of reach and sight of children. A high locked cabinet is recommended.
  • Teach children that matches and lighters are not toys, they are tools for grown ups.
  • Never give a lighter to a child as a toy.