A V-SHAPED burn pattern can be seen in the bottom of this cardboard box, which was used as an ashtray. The materials in the box grew so hot they burned a hole clear through the floor beneath, and landed in the basement. Mid-Columbia Fire & Rescue crews responded to the home on Nov. 11 on a report of smoke. Contributed photo
A V-SHAPED burn pattern can be seen in the bottom of this cardboard box, which was used as an ashtray. The materials in the box grew so hot they burned a hole clear through the floor beneath, and landed in the basement. Mid-Columbia Fire & Rescue crews responded to the home on Nov. 11 on a report of smoke. Contributed photo
On a recent fire call, crews responded to a report of a duplex filled with smoke. Firefighters soon found the problem: a cardboard box on a porch that was used as an ashtray smoldered so hot it burned a v-shaped hole through the floor and into the basement.
The screened in porch was not only where the occupants kept their recyclables, but the area also had a lot of sawdust, said Lt./paramedic Joel Brown of Mid-Columbia Fire & Rescue.
“They were trying very hard to catch their back porch on fire,” Brown said.
He said the fire department goes on three to five calls a year of fires started by people using flammable containers as receptacles for cigarette butts or fireplace ashes.
“We get a bunch of these calls a year and they’re so easily preventable,” Brown said.
The solution, he said, is a $20 metal bucket with a lockable lid, “and you can put all the burnable materials in it you want.”
Fire crews were initially looking for the source of the smoke in the Nov. 11 fire when they went into the basement. “We got into the basement and there’s a pile of ashes and burning wood and smoldering materials laying there on the concrete floor and we look up and there’s this v-shaped hole,” he said. “And we go, ‘Ok, it’s on the porch.’”
On the porch, they pulled the cardboard box up, “and the whole bottom of the box fell out.”
Crews cut a hole into the porch floor to remove the burned section.
Brown said that even “some of our bigger fires where we’ve lost multiple structures have been from improperly disposed smoking materials, and you can prevent them for $20. It cost $20 to not have your house burn to the ground, and maybe your neighbor’s house.”
The occupants of the duplex weren’t home, but their home was filled with smoke and smoke detectors were going off. “Because it was a duplex, their neighbor’s house was filled with smoke too,” he said.
“The landlord was pretty ticked when he found out about this,” Brown said.
Another mistake people make is putting their cigarette butts out in flower planters.
“They think that planters are safe to throw cigarettes in, the problem is a lot of planters, the type of dirt and sawdust and other materials that are put in there make it flammable.”
Brown goes on medical calls and sees people using cardboard boxes or plastic trashcans as ashtrays and always takes the opportunity to educate them about a safer option. He comes across this situation at least two or three times a week, he said.
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