The fires in Texas/Oklahoma and cigarettes

[aps]

I want to take this opportunity to please remind people who smoke to NOT throw your cigarette butt on the ground. It is a fire hazard. Apparently, one of the fires could have been started by a cigarette being thrown out of a window of a car.

Thank you. :fyi:

Not Much Remains for Texans in Path of Fire

Fires throughout parts of Texas have erupted from fireworks, welding and burning trash in barrels. The fire that engulfed a third of this ranching town about 150 miles west of Dallas began on the side of a road, leading officials to suspect it was ignited by a cigarette thrown out a window or by a spark from a car's catalytic converter, Ms. Weaver said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/30/national/30fires.html

 

[aps]

Well, saying that in such an absolute way is misleading, makes people think that any time someone tosses a cigarette butt out a window it'll start a fire. It takes EXTREMELY particular situations for a cigarette butt to start a fire.
Once my buddy and I decided to try to set a lawn of completely dead dry grass on fire with cigarette butts. At first we flicked them, and there was nothing. Then we put the cherry up to the grass and waited, it got a little charred, but went out almost immidiately. Then we did the same with cigars with the exact same results.
So I think the better message is to use common sense. If it's dry as hell, and Smokey says the fire warning level is high, don't throw your cigarette butts out the window.

Notice that I used the words "could have started" when talking about the cigarette butts and the possibility of causing one of the fires. Regardless of the fire hazard, it is LITTERING. It takes something like 7 years for a cigarette butt to decompose. I cannot fathom what runs through people's heads when they throw a butt on the ground as if the ground was their ashtray.

P.S. galenrox, you can kiss my butt--pun intended. :lol:

 

[aps]

hey hey hey, that's what I like to hear (was that a cigarette pun or a sexual reference. That response was crafted for the latter)!

:moon:

I'll tell you what it is, there's typically nowhere else to toss them.
Right now I am out on Orcas Island in Washington, it's a gorgeous place, and I mean gorgeous. So I try my hardest not to toss my cigarette butts on the ground, but considering there aren't many public ashtrays or trash cans, the only other option I'm presented with is putting the butt in my pocket, and if you've ever smelled a semi-fresh cigarette butt, you can understand why that isn't an attractive alternative.
Plus, most people, while driving, ash out the window, since they have to open it anyways to keep the tar from building up on the inside of the windsheild, and so why take the effort (and the danger) of looking off the road to find the ashtray, and then put out the cigarette butt there, when you can just drop it?

I have an excellent, a really tremendous solution for you, Mr. galenrox,

STOP SMOKING!

If you think the smell of a semi-fresh cigarette butt is unattractive, have you smelled the hair, breath, and clothes of a person that smokes? OMG, GROSS!

I am truly in love with my husband. I would literally die for him. BUT, if that great man started to smoke, I would dump his a$$ faster than he could finish lighting up his first cigarette.

You have no idea how sexy it is to be with a man who smells like his shampoo or cologne or laundry detergent. (Body odor is not a good smell either. )

Come on, galenrox, you can do it. Quit....quit....quit :devil:

*aps gets off her soap box now for two reasons: (1) to respect galenrox and (2) to allow galenrox to kiss her buttocks*

 

[dragonslayer]

I want to take this opportunity to please remind people who smoke to NOT throw your cigarette butt on the ground. It is a fire hazard. Apparently, one of the fires could have been started by a cigarette being thrown out of a window of a car.

Thank you. :fyi:

Not Much Remains for Texans in Path of Fire

Fires throughout parts of Texas have erupted from fireworks, welding and burning trash in barrels. The fire that engulfed a third of this ranching town about 150 miles west of Dallas began on the side of a road, leading officials to suspect it was ignited by a cigarette thrown out a window or by a spark from a car's catalytic converter, Ms. Weaver said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/30/national/30fires.html

I think is may be God punishing Texas and Oklahoma for supporting Bush, the Dragon from Hell.

seriously, I hope they control the fires soon