Crews respond to a residential fire Saturday afternoon around 3:30 pm. Fire was noticed when the homes occupant woke from a nap to the smell of smoke in the house. The resident opened his front door to find a plastic cigarette butt container on fire and called 911. The fire was quickly doused but had extended through the siding into wall before crews arrived. Fire crews checked for extension and ventilated the basement and the main floor of the home. 

Cigarette fires cause close to 1,000 deaths and 3,000 injuries each year in the United States, according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). As the ignition source in fires responsible for over 20% of all fire deaths, cigarettes are the nations largest single cause of such deaths.

A National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recommended educational messages to reduce smoking fires:

• If you smoke, smoke outside.
• Whenever you smoke, use deep, wide, sturdy ashtrays. Ashtrays should be set on something sturdy and hard to ignite, like an end table.
• Before you throw out butts and ashes, make sure they are out. Dowsing in water or sand is the best way to do that.
• Check under furniture cushions and in other places people smoke for cigarette butts that may have fallen out of sight.
• Smoking should not be allowed in a home where medical oxygen is used.
• To prevent a deadly cigarette fire, you have to be alert. You won’t be if you are sleepy, have been drinking, or have taken medicine or other drugs.