Join #Stoptober with AliDeck to Stop Smoking for Health and Share #StoptoberFires to Help Prevent Balcony Fires

AliDeck launches balcony fire safety campaign as part of the national annual Stoptober smoking cessation drive. Smoking materials account for the majority of fires on balconies, with hundreds occurring around the country in the last three years due to smoking. By raising awareness of these startling facts, AliDeck hope to encourage more people to quit smoking, bringing benefits to their health and also helping them live a more fire safe balcony life.

The annual #Stoptober campaign launches today, with the aim to encourage people to give up smoking for the month of October and, hopefully, permanently. Research has shown that if a smoker is able to quit for 28 days then they are 5 times more likely to quit for good.

The health benefits of stopping smoking are clear and undeniable; an almost immediate reduction of harmful carbon monoxide in your blood; senses of taste and smell recover; increased lung function; improved circulation; drastically reduced risk of heart attacks and lung cancer; and much more.

While it is plain to see that stopping smoking is good for your health, a less obvious but equally important benefit to kicking the habit is the huge and immediate increase in fire safety you’ll receive!

Smoking is the most common cause of fire fatalities, with fires caused by cigarettes, roll-ups, cigars, and pipes resulting in more deaths each year than any other type of fire. This heavy toll is tragic but there will also be many non-fatal fires caused by smoking materials that destroy homes and properties, ruining lives in the process.

A particularly troubling type of smoking-related fire is those that occur on balconies on high rise buildings. Following the Grenfell tragedy, there has been a monumental shift in awareness of fire safety issues pertaining to tower blocks, with close focus on the dangers caused by flammable wall cladding, but action to achieve fire safety has been slow and many blocks remain in a problematic condition, with combustible materials contained in many areas other than merely in the wall cladding.

As balconies have traditionally been constructed with combustible elements such as timber or composite decking, they have an inherent fire risk and, as external attachments to the building, often cause fires to spread quickly across the building.

A major fire occurred at a block of flats in Barking in June 2019. The fire began on a timber balcony and quickly spread to connected balconies across the building elevation, destroying 20 flats in the process and leaving the residents homeless for months. London Fire Brigade recorded the cause of the fire as likely to have been started by either smoking materials or a barbecue.

This balcony fire is far from an isolated incident, with similar occurrences regularly happening all around the country. London Fire Brigade have reported that there were nearly 600 balcony fires across the capital in the last three years, with 291 of them being caused by smoking materials. Manchester saw 51 balcony fires in the same period, with 23 caused by smoking materials; Hampshire saw 37, 22 smoking related; Kent suffered 20 balcony fires, with half due to smoking; and so on.

The most shocking aspect of these devastating statistics is that these fires are completely avoidable. By people quitting smoking and therefore removing the materials that might cause a blaze, the risk of smoking-related fires on their balconies is immediately drastically reduced.

Many smoking-related balcony fires, though, are caused by smokers carelessly discarding their cigarettes from their own balconies, only for them to be blown onto balconies below, such as that at a building in Manchester’s Northern Quarter in May of this year. The more people that quit smoking, however, the less often this reckless act will cause fires.

Accordingly, AliDeck fully embrace the aims and ideals of #Stoptober and we will support the campaign through the whole of October and look to raise awareness of the fire safety issues caused by smoking, particularly as they pertain to fires on balconies.

We realise, though, that quitting smoking is an extremely difficult task for many people and that many who try to quit this October will sadly not be successful at this attempt. Our message to them is twofold; keep trying and never give up on giving up, and also consider replacing the combustible timber or composite elements of your balcony to remove the possibility of smoking materials causing a dangerous balcony fire.

AliDeck manufacture 100% aluminium non-combustible balcony decking. Independently fire-tested, the AliDeck System holds an A1 fire rating, the best rating achievable, and by replacing combustible materials with AliDeck aluminium decking you are immediately making a huge leap towards a fire safe home.

Be sure to follow AliDeck on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn through October as we support the Stoptober campaign. We’ll be sharing lots of material relating to smoking, fire safety, and balconies, and we’ll be focusing on several major themes, including; Fire & Rescue Service data on balcony fires and smoking; balcony fires in the news; EWS1 and related information; and relevant legislation and regulatory matters.

If you’d like to find out more about how to achieve fire safe balconies by replacing combustible timber or composite materials, please call the AliDeck team on 01622 235 672 or email info@alideck.co.uk.