Careless Smokers Are the Main Cause of Fire Accidents in India !

In India it is a must for the sellers of the cigarettes and the tobacco products to print over the product the statutory warning that “Smoking is injurious to Health”.

There was a sign board in some city in India reading, “Smoking Kills You Slowly” and a smoker wrote below the above notice ”We are not in a Hurry (to die)”.  The smokers in India do not take the warnings on the dangers of smoking seriously.

Further, the smokers do not bother about other people, whether smokers or non-smokers while they smoke in houses and on the roads, in offices and even if public places, violating all rules and warnings.  Because of the carelessness of smokers, many fire accidents are taking place, in various places of India.

According to a recent study by the Andhra Pradesh State Fire Service, careless smoking has been  one of the main causes of  the increasing incidence of fire accidents, apart from the other causes, such as,  electrical short-circuit, gas leakage, fire crackers and chemical reactions.

Cigarette butts thrown away carelessly by the smokers without properly putting off the fire in the butt have become the cause for fire accidents.

Recently, an employee of Software Company on the 11th floor of Babu Khan Estate in Basheerbagh, Hyderabad had thrown a still burning cigarette butt on the waste papers dumped in the balcony of the company and a fire was ignited.  The employees noticed the fire and informed to the fire service and tried to put off fire by throwing buckets of water.  Fire Service Staff, from the Secretariat Station rushed to the spot and extinguished the flames and a major fire tragedy was averted.

In many other places of India, the smokers do throw away cigarette butts without properly putting off from the balcony of their apartments in first or second floors into the nearby vacant plots dumped with wastes and with dry thorny bushes and cause fires.

Dear Smokers of India!

Please stop smoking, or at least stop smoking in public places, including on the roads,. Please do not throw cigarette butts without putting off carelessly and cause fire accident.