- Overview
- Fire Safety At Home
- Inside The Home
- - Alcohol
- - Bedtime Checks
- - Candles, Lights And Decorations
- - Carbon Monoxide
- - Cooking Safely
- - Drugs
- - Electrical Safety
- - Escape Plans
- - Independent Living
- - Medicine
- - Oxygen Therapy
- - Smoke Alarms
- - Smoking
- Outside The Home
- - Barbecue
- - Bonfires
- - Camping And Caravanning
- - Fireworks
- If You Have A Fire
- - After The Fire
- Community Fire Safety
- Business Fire Safety
More people die in fires caused by smoking than in fires caused by anything else. Tobacco is manufactured to stay alight, meaning it can remain smouldering and start a fire.
Smoking more safely
- Smoke outside your home if possible.
- Never smoke in bed – it’s very easy to fall asleep and allow your cigarette to set light to your bedclothes or furnishings.
- Don’t smoke if you’re drowsy – especially if you’re sitting in a comfortable chair or if you’ve been drinking or taking prescription medicine or are using drugs; again, it’s easy to fall asleep.
- Use a proper ashtray that can’t tip over and is made of a material that won’t burn.
- Don’t leave a lit cigarette (or cigar or pipe) – they can easily overbalance and land on the carpet or other flammable material; and make sure your ashtray is heavy and can’t tip easily.
- Make sure that your butts (and any remains in your pipe bowl) aren’t still smouldering when you’ve finished with them; wet them and empty your ashtray into a metal bin outside the house.
- Keep lighters, matches and smoking materials out of the reach of children – you can also buy child-resistant lighters and containers for matches.
The NHS stop smoking service can help you if you want to stop smoking. Contact them on 0800 169 0 169 or go to the external website www.nhs.uk/smokefree