SMOKERS in Cumbria are being urged to take more care when lighting-up at home, following a rise in fire deaths.
The warning comes from Cumbria's chief fire officer Dominic Harrison as a report shows that of the seven fire deaths since April 2007, there is evidence that five were smoking-related.
The rise in Cumbrian fire deaths bucks a general trend which h
as seen a steady drop in the number of people killed in accidental dwelling fires – down from six in 2001/02 to three in 2006/07.
Overall, the number of people killed or injured in house fires has fallen from 61 in 2001/02 to 30 this year.
Two in every three people who die in fires do so before the Fire and Rescue Service is even called, making it a priority for the Fire and Rescue Service to help people prevent fires from happening in the first place.
Since 2003, firefighters in Cumbria have carried out more than 45,000 home safety visits which are designed to make sure people have working smoke detectors and basic fire prevention advice.
This year, the county's Fire & Rescue Service is also investing more than £220,000 on providing the very latest optical smoke detectors for homes and the recruitment of five new community safety advocates.
The advocates will work closely with Cumbria Adult Social Care and other services to identify and target individuals, like smokers, whose lifestyles means they could be at greater danger of being killed or being seriously injured in a blaze.
The European Commission's decision to ban traditional cigarettes by 2009-10, forcing smokers to buy 'fire-safe' cigarettes that need constant drags to keep them alight, is also expected to reduce smoking-related fires.
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