Your editorial of March 13, headlined, 'Fire fighting', rightly calls for stronger measures to prevent fires, especially within buildings.
The Fire Services Department reported that 4,411 fires in Hong Kong in 1997 were due to careless smoking - easily the biggest single category of causes of fires.
Resultant economic losses, injuries and deaths should be added to the health toll in compiling the bigger picture of the havoc that tobacco causes in our community.
The same picture is seen globally. Reportedly the worst industrial fire in world history and the worst industrial disaster in US history were caused by cigarettes.
Cigarettes are currently the greatest cause of fire deaths in America.
The Chinese Government reports that 'most' forest fires are caused by human factors such as smoking, including China's worst-ever fire in which 1.3 million hectares of land were ravaged, 300 people were killed, and 5,000 people were made homeless.
