Letters – Dangers of smoking increase in county

Dear Smokers:
You are certainly free to smoke in your cars. But please do not throw your butts out your car windows.

The entire county is tinderbox dry, and the winds have been strong. My husband is a volunteer firefighter and they were called to three fires just last week that were caused by a careless smoker throwing a butt out of a passing car.

In one case the fire

nearly reached two houses.

Thankfully, the hardworking VFD firefighters were able to battle back the blaze, just in time.

If you must smoke, at least keep your butts with you until you can dispose of them properly. And if you don’t think this is a problem, just start watching along the side of the roads you drive: every time you see a big black area that starts at the edge of the road, the likelihood is nearly 100 percent that it was started by a cigarette butt.
Next time it might be your butt that starts the fire, and it might take out someone’s home, livestock, family pets or children.
Janet Christian
Dale