Smoking while on supplemental oxygen causes 3 house fires in Las Cruces

In the last four months there have been three fires in Doa Ana County, all at homes where the homeowners were smoking while using oxygen tanks.

“Three fires caused by somebody who’s smoking a cigarette while they are on oxygen,” spokesmanDan Trujillo of the Las Cruces Police Department told ABC-7. “Clearly those two combinations are not good.”

Police are saying all three fires caused injuries to the homeowners; two of the fires were so bad that the homeowners had to be transported to the Lubbock Burn Center.

“Patients just don’t realize how dangerous [smoking while on oxygen] is,” Abraham Gonzalez, owner of Doa Ana Medical Supply, which services patients on oxygen, said. “Oxygen isn’t flammable, but it is combustible. Anything that is near oxygen burns faster.”

And it doesn’t take much to start a fire around an oxygen system.

“Just even just a little ash from a cigarette with something that’s enriched with oxygen will… I mean it almost looks like fireworks how quickly it burns,” Gonzalez said.

And cigarettes aren’t the only thing to look out for.

“Open flames, as far as candles, when they’re cooking, especially around natural gas stoves and things like that,” Gonzalez said.

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