Dangers of discarding a lit cigarette out your vehicle's window

Cigarettes start lots of fires. Most often, they ignite couches or beds when people fall asleep smoking. <br/><br/>Normally, the idea of a cigarette starting a wildfire would seem far-fetched, but they

Thursday, March 2nd 2006, 10:17 am

By: News On 6

Cigarettes start lots of fires. Most often, they ignite couches or beds when people fall asleep smoking.

Normally, the idea of a cigarette starting a wildfire would seem far-fetched, but they certainly can given our unusual circumstances.

News on 6 anchor Terry Hood says Tulsa Fire Captain Larry Bowles says a cigarette might've started Wednesday's wildfire near Broken Arrow. Investigators traced the fire back to where it started and found a discarded cigarette butt lying on the side of the road.

Bowles says it's next to impossible to start a fire with a cigarette, under normal circumstances, but circumstances were anything but normal Thursday.

Standing records were shattered with unbelievably high temperatures. Tulsa beat it's old record by 11 degrees. Couple that with low humidity, high winds, a drought season and Bowles says you have a recipe for disaster.

Tulsa Fire Captain Larry Bowles: "Things are much more flammable at 92 degrees than they are at 70 degrees or even 50 degrees. And so as the temperature goes up, the humidity drops, and things dry out, especially with the high wind, and then you have that condition where things are just right."

A ticket for tossing a lit cigarette out the window during the burn ban will cost you $220. The State Fire Marshal's office, along with the Departments of Transportation and Agriculture have started an advertising campaign to get people to report drivers who flick cigarettes out of their vehicles.

They've set up a toll-free statewide hotline. That number is 800-522-8666.

No matter how unlikely it is that a cigarette will start a fire, when there's a statewide burn ban like this, there's no reason to take the risk.