Yet Another Way for Cigarettes to Kill You

After all the talk, after all the sad newspaper stories and all the fire education promos, it’s almost shocking to believe, but smoking continues to be the number one cause of fire deaths.

And it’s not just people who smoke in bed, points out Maria Sabol, fire prevention educator for the Orange County Fire Authority. “It’s also people who leave their ashes smoldering at night, or leave a burning cigarette too close to something that can ignite.”

You’ll read other important fire safety tips on this page. For my part, I wanted to write about people who go to sleep without taking all precautions that their homes are safe from potential fire.

According to the National Fire Prevention Assn., kitchen fires happen to be the No. 1 cause of all home fires at 22%. But smoking-related fires, while only sixth in fire causes at 5%, tops all for deaths at 23%. Most are after midnight. And the stories are tragic.

You might recall the 28-year-old single mother in Orange a year ago who died with her two small children in a late-night fire. The cause was listed as a cigarette butt still smoldering in a kitchen trash can.

Tobacco ashes have been known to remain smoldering for as long as 48 hours, Sabol said.

A tip or two from the experts: If you smoke at home, never throw smoldering ashes in the trash, and use only deep-dish ash trays or metal ash trays with a lid.

Quite often those who fall asleep smoking are on medication or have been drinking, which can lead to drowsiness. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says drinking is involved in more than half the smoking-related tragedies.

But fires start while we’re asleep in other ways too. Space heaters are a major hazard, she said.

Fire officials have a hard and unbending recommendation on space heaters: Never leave them on while you’re asleep. If you’re cold in Southern California, grab extra covers.

Aiming for the Elderly

The Fire Prevention Authority and county officials are putting together a new campaign to promote fire safety among the elderly. The top two items on their priority list for discussion: Smoking and space heaters.

“We aren’t saying that space heaters that you buy aren’t safe,” Sabol said. “But you should never leave one on at night, because there’s too much danger something close to it might ignite.”

Even when you’re wide awake and operating a space heater to keep your feet warm, here’s a good standard rule to follow: three feet of free space on all sides of the heater. In other words, give space heaters space.

Other fires come from our own carelessness. Sabol recalls one fire where a woman sat down in front of the TV while she had soup heating on the stove. She fell asleep and forgot the soup, which led to a major kitchen fire.

All these fires seem so senseless. But Sabol has a pretty good explanation for all of them:

“It won’t happen to me. It’s not a conscious thing. Everybody thinks, ‘I can smoke in bed, because I’m not the kind who will fall asleep.’ It’s always the other guy, never us.”

Until it’s us.

In looking up statistics for this piece, I came across this thought from the National Fire Protection Assn.: “We Americans spend up to 75% of our time at home. But the reality is that 78% to 81% of all the people who die in fires in the U.S. die at home--many who thought they were in the safest place they could be.”

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Readers may reach Hicks by calling (714) 564-1049 or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com