Careless smoking numbers on the rise

With slightly less than five months left in 2018, Regina’s yearly average of fires caused by careless smoking has already been surpassed.

From 2006-16, city fire crews responded to 93 fires caused by careless smoking, an average of 9.3 per year.

So far this year, crews have already responded to 10 such fires.

“Every year we seem to be getting more and more of these,” said Fire Marshal Randy Ryba. “We’re finding this troubling, quite frankly.”

Regina Fire and Protective Services issued a news release carrying the same message several weeks ago, but seeing that some people clearly weren’t getting the point, Ryba felt compelled to highlight the issue again with another statement recently.

“They’re totally preventable. That’s the thing that disturbs me the most,” he said.

Ryba said that recently there were two fires a week over two weeks caused by careless smoking.

He said firefighters have seen an increase in these types of fires over the past two to three years.

In the 93 fires from 2006-16, Ryba said there were three fatalities. Some of the fires started in the home, others on a deck or patio.

The impact of the blazes has ranged from minimal damage all the way to total destruction of a home or structure.

“People just aren’t thinking when they’re disposing of their smoking material,” said Ryba.

The most common denominator in a fire caused by careless smoking is either a plastic milk jug or a planter soil, he said. Both spots are where cigarette butts and other smoking materials are often put out. However, Ryba is asking residents to avoid using them for that purpose.

“Plastic will eventually ignite, and if it’s close enough to anything else — the siding on your house or the kids’ toys, or whatever else is on your deck, we’ll have a fire,” he said.

Commonly, planter soil, which contains large amounts of peat moss, is the culprit.

“People feel their planting soil is dirt. It’s certainly not,” said Ryba. “There’s an amount of actual soil in there that’s not combustible, but the majority of that soil is peat moss, and peat moss will smoulder for hours, and sometimes days, below the surface.”

Regina Fire and Protective Services recommends using a metal container that’s partially filled with sand or gravel to safely butt out smoking materials.

“If people were being safe with the discarding of smokers’ material, we wouldn’t have to respond in the first place. If we can minimize the amount of fires we’re having, it benefits the community.”