I just rode by a house that was ravaged by fire early Sunday morning. It was obvious that the fire had started on the front porch or in the vicinity of the front porch. Fire investigators have determined that the fire started in a flowerpot, on the front porch, from an improperly discarded cigarette. In this fire, the occupants were displaced, but no one lost their life. Why do I call this a common cause? In Chesterfield County alone, there have been three house fires – in the recent past that I know of – that were caused by improperly discarded cigarettes, resulting in six fatalities. Where fire safety is concerned, as proactive as the fire service tries to be, many times our strongest and most far-reaching messages come in reaction to a particular fire incident. For the people living on this street, there will be a daily reminder of the effects of a house fire until reconstruction occurs. For the rest of us, we will either read about it or hear about it in the news.
Let me try to break this type of fire cause down. Cigarettes burn at temperatures at or around 550 degrees Fahrenheit. Most combustibles have ignition temperatures that are below that. Picture this: a cigarette is discarded into a flowerpot or a mulch bed. There are times that the cigarette may just go out. However, given the right circumstances, that improperly discarded cigarette will start a smoldering fire that may burn for hours. With the right amount of air, either the fire will become free burning or the heat from the smoldering fire will ignite nearby combustibles. You have heard me say before that vinyl siding burns like gasoline.
What does this type of fire mean for the people inside? As I just said, this fire may smolder for hours. The cigarette may have been discarded, before the occupants go to bed. While they are sleeping, a raging fire occurs and is not detected right away because there are no outdoor smoke alarms and the neighbors are also asleep. The occupants will not know about the fire until it penetrates the house, setting off smoke alarms. In this incident, the entire front of the house was lit off, preventing escape from this direction. Fires normally go from incipient to free burning to smoldering. In this case, smoldering and incipient are together, which goes to free burning. What this boils down to is that this fire could burn for a while; it all depends on the fuel.
I do not know if the occupants were home, but if they were, they woke up to the front of their home fully involved, with fire extension into the home. The fire has gotten a head start on the occupants, making escape difficult.
I do my best sleeping at that time of the morning. In other words, I am in my deepest sleep then. Waking up is hard enough, but then having to make critical, life-saving decisions becomes even harder. This is why it is vitally important to have a practiced home escape plan. The less you have to think about it, the better the chances are you will survive a fire in your home. Keep in mind; if smoke alarms alerted these occupants, the fire was already raging from floor to roof on the outside. In some fire scenarios, occupants only have one chance to get out without injury or worse, they die in the fire.
What if there are small children, special needs children or adults, or pets? All of these have to be considered in your home escape plan.
You may ask, where do I discard a cigarette? Just like fireplace coals or charcoal grill coals, cigarettes must be discarded in a metal container, preferably with a lid. It is important to keep these containers free of combustibles, and they should be stored away from other combustibles. This may seem like a bit of overkill, but I am trying to prevent a fire, not consider what is convenient for you, though I know that human nature is that whatever is convenient will most likely be done. I hope that people will think about this the next time they decide to take a morning, midday, or evening smoke outside of their home.
