Smoking Fire Safety

Aside from the fact that smoking is bad for your health, there are more reasons why smoking can be deadly:

• Fires started by cigarettes cause one out of every five fire fatalities
• Careless smoking is the number one cause of home fire deaths in Canada

Prevent smoking related fires with these safety tips:

• If you smoke, smoke outside
• Use deep, wide ashtrays that cannot be knocked over
• Empty ashes into a metal container – not the garbage can – and put it outside
• Before you throw out butts and ashes, make sure they are out. Dousing in water or sand is the best way to do that
• Never flick lit cigarette butts off balconies
• Do not extinguish cigarettes in plant pots, which may contain a mixture of peat moss, shredded wood and bark that can easily ignite
• Never smoke in bed

Did you know?

• Smoking fire account for 8% of all home fires
• One in 10 smoking fires results in an injury or death
• One in four home fire fatalities are caused by smoking
• 65% of smoking fires are caused by improper discarding of smoking materials
• The average dollar loss per smoking fire is $37,000

Thinking of quitting? Visit Windsor-Essex County Health Unit's ways to quit website.