Planters a fire hazard when used as ashtray: firefighters

Extremely dry conditions in the area brings increase in grass fires

Be careful where you butt out in a drought, smokers.

Hamilton firefighters are increasingly busy dousing everything from grass fires to smouldering floral planters in near-record dry conditions across the city.

The department has snuffed out 14 grass fires across the city this year, compared to just four over the same time in 2015, said fire safety officer Dave Christopher. They can also receive up to three reports a week of smoking outdoor planters or mulch-heavy flower beds, he estimated.

“You’ll see it outside restaurants or other places where smokers will gather. Someone butts out in a planter … sometimes it catches,” he said.

Many popular potting soils contain peat moss, which is flammable when it dries out.

Often, someone will douse the smouldering mulch or peat “with the equivalent of a jug of water” before the fire department even shows up, Christopher noted.

“The odd time we’ll get a little fire, but knock on wood, we haven’t seen anything really serious so far,” he said of combustible outdoor flower pots.

But in a city where smoking rates remain above 15 per cent, “people need to realize carelessness can have serious consequences.”

Montreal made headlines this month after officials reported 150 fires in June that originated in planters, flower beds or roadside planting areas. About 20 of those fires eventually spread to buildings.

Stubbing a lit cigarette in the wrong place is risky at the best of times, let alone in near-record dry conditions.

Hamilton has had about 80 millimetres of rain in May, June and the start of July, according to Environment Canada. Normally, we would see closer to 180 millimetres over that period.

The Hamilton Conservation Authority has declared a “Level 1 low water condition” for the watershed, which comes with a request that well users reduce water consumption by 10 per cent.

The city tends hundreds of outdoor hanging baskets and planters, not to mention nearly 400 floral median and traffic island beds.

But most of those flowers grow in regular soil, not pots stuffed with peat or wood chips, said horticultural supervisor Neil Schofield.

“We haven’t seen any problems like that so far — and I hope we don’t ever,” he said.

Christopher said he knows of no large fires this year that started in planters accessible to the wider public. But it’s a different story in homes or on private balconies, where carelessly discarded cigarettes routinely force firefighters into battle mode.

In April, a peat-filled flower pot on a 14th-storey Main Street West balcony caught on fire after a cigarette found its way there. That fire caused about $5,000 damage, and firefighters kept it from spreading to neighbouring apartments.

The reasons for grass fires also vary, Christopher said, and include flicking lit cigarettes out of car windows, ignoring outdoor burning bans, and burning to get rid of garbage or agricultural debris.