The London Fire Brigade just recently published a blog post announcing that they welcome Public Health England’s support for electronic cigarettes as a method to help smokers quit smoking and to help prevent smoking-related fire deaths.
Dan Daily, the brigades Assistant Commissioner for fire safety said that their statistics show that there have been over 3,580 smoking-related fires in the last three years while there have been only 15 caused by electronic cigarettes.
He also mentioned that the London Fire Brigade has no recorded deaths or injuries caused by vaping equipment catching on fire, although he did say that there is some risk of fire from people leaving their e-cigarette charging while overnight or for extended periods of time. He suggests charging only when you’re awake and near your device and that users should always use the correct type of charger for their vape.
I believe this is the same fire department supported the use of electronic cigarettes last year too, saying pretty much the same thing, that vaping is much safer than smoking as far as fire risks go.
I looked up some stats and it looks like cigarette-related fires cause nearly 1,000 deaths, 3,000 injuries, and costs nearly $7 billion per year in just the United States alone. You’d actually think that more fire departments would be in favor of vaping.