News

Blaze prompts officials to promote better fure safety

  • Published
  • By Wayne Crenshaw
  • 78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  A bit of ash from a cigarette caused a significant blaze at the Russell Parkway entrance to Robins.

Assistant Fire Chief Tom Kennedy said a guard at Gate 14 was smoking in an area away from the gate when he "field-stripped" his cigarette. Field stripping is a method used for butt disposal when there is not an available container. The ash is pinched off the end and the butt is pocketed.

The guard did that, Mr. Kennedy said, but dry weather and high winds were enough to cause the bit of ash that was pinched off to erupt into a blaze. The fire started at 4 p.m. and base firefighters had it out by 4:30 p.m. Mr. Kennedy said it burned about a quarter acre of grass under two planes at the Museum of Aviation, but the blaze was not big enough to threaten damage to the planes.

It could easily have gotten into nearby brush and trees and gotten much bigger, he said.

Mr. Kennedy said his investigation found that guards at the gate were smoking in an area that did not have a smoking container, and was not suitable for smoking in any case because of the high grass. He recommended that a suitable area be designated near the gate with butt-disposal containers.

"In the area they were smoking at, there was a tremendous amount of cigarette butts but no proper containers," he said. "They need to have a better controlled area."

He said the fire department did not take any action against the guard.

Smoking is a common fire hazard on base, Mr. Kennedy said. Even in designated smoking areas, where there are usually several containers for butts, people will toss out butts on the ground. Fires have started that way, and one gazebo was nearly lost, Mr. Kennedy said.

"We've had a rash of (smoking-related) fires," Mr. Kennedy said.

He said smokers should always dispose of butts properly, and if there is not an available container, to only field-strip in paved areas. He also said there is a problem of smoking containers not being emptied, and that someone at each smoking area should be designated to empty the containers.