Smoke free homes
- Everyone has the right to live in a safe and secure home.
- The right home environment is crucial to promoting positive health and wellbeing including the right to live in a healthy environment, a place where children can grow, learn and play.
- An immediate danger from smoking in the home is the risk of a fire. This is commonly a result of careless disposal or handling of smoking materials.
- Smoking materials account for around 7% of accidental fires in the home every year and are the fourth most common reason for a fire in a home after cooking appliances and other electrical appliances and faults. This means that every year the fire and rescue service attend approximately 2,000 smoking related fires in the home.
- Smoking accounts for the single largest cause of fatalities from house fires of which 36% leads to deaths. This is because smokers are often close to the source of the fire when it starts, for example if they are smoking in bed.
- Smoking related fires are also more common in homes where the smoker is immobile and less able to move away from the source of the fire.
- Smoke drifting into neighbours’ properties can also be a nuisance, causing distress and anxiety for people.
Contact the WMFS for a ‘safe and well’ check or advice and keep your family and home safe from fire.
