Discarded cigarette causes rubbish fire

Firefighters are advising residents to make sure cigarettes are properly stubbed out after a rubbish fire in Grays this morning.

Crews were called to a fire in High Street, Grays after a discarded cigarette caught rubbish alight.

Firefighters extinguished the fire by 10:02am.

Watch Manager Gary Bannister from Grays Fire Station said: “If you’re a smoker, please make sure to properly extinguish your cigarettes. Make sure they are properly stubbed out before you discard them as the embers can quickly catch nearby materials alight.

“With the weather being quite warm and dry at the moment and into the summer, a discarded cigarette could easily catch materials alight. We often see a rise in grass fires at this time of year when everything is dry.”

This month is the National Fire Chiefs Council's smoking safety campaign.

Fire crews across Essex attended 231 fires caused by smoking materials between April 2019 and March 2022. 

More people die in fires in the home caused by cigarettes and smoking products than any other cause. In England in 2020/21, accidental fires in the home resulting from smokers’ materials and cigarette lighters made up 32% of all fatalities in the home (48 out of 150).

Smoking related fires are the biggest killers in accidental fires in the home. Cigarettes and other smoking products cause a quarter of all accidental fire fatalities in the home.

If you're a smoker or you have a smoker living in your home, make sure you follow our advice to stay safe at home:

• Make sure your all cigarettes are fully extinguished
• Take extra care when you’re tired, taking any sort of drugs or have been drinking alcohol. It’s very easy to fall asleep while your cigarette is still burning
• Never smoke in bed - if you need to lie down, don’t light up. You could doze off and set your bed on fire
• Never leave lit cigarettes unattended - they can easily overbalance as they burn down
• Use a proper, heavy ashtray that can’t tip over easily and is made of a material that won’t burn. Make sure your cigarette is fully extinguished
• Tap your ash into an ashtray, never a wastebasket containing other rubbish – and don’t let the ash or cigarette ends build up in the ashtray
• Use child safe matches and cigarette lighters and keep them safely out of the reach of children
• Fit and maintain a smoke alarm - a working smoke alarm can buy you valuable time to get out, stay out and call 999