Discarded cigarettes top the list of causes for fires in the municipality in 2025.
Grande Prairie Fire Marshall Chris Renyk says improply discarded butts have been predominant contributor to overall fires in Grande Prairie. He adds things like still burning smokes thrown from a window, or balcony, could end up anywhere and could cause a problem before you even know it.
“A lot of the discarded cigarette materials will either be in the garbage, combustibles, leaf litter, grass, might fall underneath a deck, or into someone else’s deck, those materials tend to smolder.”
According to Renyk, over the years these cigarette related fires have always been the near the top of list for the causes of fires, but he says in the recent years that lithium batteries have been causing more and more fires in the city.
“Discarded cigarette materials have always been very high on the list. Last year we had an up tick in the amount of battery fires, that were represented with a lot of things like hand-held appliances, everything from your regular Dyson vacuum to laptops and remote control cars.”
