Smoking and Fire Safety

There are about 1,000 smokers and non-smokers who are killed in home due to fire caused by their cigarettes and other smoking devices. Fire due to cigarettes and smoking devices can be preventable by taking precautions. If you are a smoker or is living with a partner who smokes, be cautious. A lit cigarette that is unintentionally dropped into a carpet, bed or chair can cause wild fire. Even an ashes or  cigarette sticks that are put to trash but is not completely burnt out may caused fire itself. Making sure that a cigarette is completely burnt out is a duty of a responsible smoker. It lies on your hand the safety of your loved ones by making sure that you follow simple rules and warning for fire safety purposes. Facts are more than one third of fire victims caused by cigarettes are children and 25 percent comes from friends, neighbors and relatives of smokers.

If you are a smoker, follow these simple fire safety guidelines:

•    As much as possible, NEVER smoke inside the house.

•    Use deep ashtrays when smoking to prevent ashes from coming out

•    Make sure that cigarettes are not lit and ashes are out when disposing them.

•    Check your cigarette butts

•    If oxygen is used inside your home, DO NOT smoke inside

•    When smoking, fire-safe cigarettes are best

•    Be cautious when smoking especially in fire-hazardous areas like gasoline stations.

•    Do not smoke if you are sleepy or taking prescription drugs that may cause drowsiness.

•    Do not smoke near fire-combustible materials like cloth, papers, etc.

•    Keep your match or lighters away from children.

Almost 75% of fires are caused by abandoned cigarettes or cigarettes that was disposed carelessly. This means that a smoker should always pay attention and be careful when lighting a cigarette and should always be aware of fire safety. The location of the victims that were killed by fires caused by cigarettes were remote from the actual cigarette that caused the fire. 30% of the victims were the smoker or the one who ignites the cigarette, 28% were in the same location as the smoker or cigarette while 40% of the victims were far from the smoker or cigarette.

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