 |
| Person Smoking |
|
While many people may be thinking about the dangers of smoking during National No Smoking Day on 9 March, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS) urges you to think about the other danger related to smoking: fire!
Paul Christopher, Community Fire Safety Officer at HFRS says, "Most people know the long-term damage smoking can do to their health and why it makes sense to give up. What a lot of people don’t know is that smoking can kill you very quickly.
More fires are caused in which people are killed as a result of carelessness with smoking materials than any other single cause.
It’s important to realise that the damage to your health from smoking won’t always be long-term".
In 2002, smoking materials caused 136 deaths and 1,700 non-fatal casualties in 4,360 UK fires.
Many of these fires were caused by people carelessly discarding or not extinguishing cigarettes properly, or fires caused by smoking in bed.
Key safety messages to bear in mind are:
Keep lighters and matches away from children.
Use a proper ashtray and never tap your ash into a waste paper basket.
Don’t empty hot ashtrays into bins. Leave them until they are cold before emptying.
Don’t leave lit smoking materials laying about as they could tip and set light to furnishings.
Don’t smoke if you are tired or have consumed alcohol as you could fall asleep whilst the cigarette is still burning.
Always ensure smoking materials are extinguished properly.
 Don’t smoke if you are tired or have consumed alcohol as you could fall asleep whilst the cigarette is still burning
Advice from the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service
|
|
Paul Christopher continues,"Many of those most at risk, such as older people and students, live alone.
In addition, they may also have furniture with the old style polyurethane foam, which can catch fire very easily.
Please ensure that you get the early warning that comes from having working smoke alarms.
We fully support 'No Smoking Day' and we hope people will take note of these important safety messages". |
