Hyderabad: Carelessly discarding cigarette butts resulted in 2754 fire mishaps last year in Telangana, followed by 1326 short circuit cases, showed data from the state’s fire services department.
V Papaiah, Regional Fire Officer, Telangana, said that after smoking people discard cigarette butts carelessly in houses, offices, open spaces like parks and garbage dumps leading to fire.
“In such instances, slowly the combustible material catches fire and after sometime fire starts. If it is an office premises and by the time fire starts, it closes down for the day, imagine the magnitude of the fire and loss,” the official explained.
Discarding cigarette butts carelessly is also a major problem for the forest officials who fight the forest fire that originates due to throwing lighted cigarette butts alongside highways. “People venture into the forest for a walk, light a cigarette and after smoking carelessly throw it. Forest fires spread rapidly in summer due to dry grass and plants and consumes a lot of department resources. Both the forest department and fire department work to control it,” said V Papaiah.
The other reasons reported for fire mishaps are due to gas coal furnaces, spontaneous combustion, mechanical heat/sparks, arson and oven stoves.
The Telangana saw 7149 fire incidents in 2021 and of it 6495 were small fires resulting in damage to property around Rs. 1991 crores. The department officials said that they are conducting more awareness programs on fire safety and precautions in factories, educational institutions, railway stations and bus stands, apartment buildings and colonies.
“More awareness programs, workshops and seminars will be organized during the fire safety week that will be held till April 20,” said the official.
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