Fire risk

Betenoir71

Registered User
Jun 20, 2019
23
0
Hi,
Anyone else out there caring for a long-term smoker? The one thing we thought mum wouldn’t forget after 61 years of smoking is how to light a cigarette. She gets through 3 lighters a day by flicking them on and off but holding the lighter too far away. She sometimes tries to “light” the remote control, handset for the phone, or other lighters. She puts three fags in her mouth at once. I gently try to point out that people only smoke one cigarette at a time, but she insists she has been smoking for decades and she is right and I am wrong. I hate this debate every night because she gets upset and thinks I am being horrible, but I can see how close she is to causing a fire and get very scared. I would have thought a behaviour that has been so routine for so many years would be the last thing she got confused about. I guess it’s anxiety, she has always been anxious about making sure she has a fag, that she is now preoccupied with it. This illness affects people in unexpected ways, doesn’t it?
 

Louise7

Volunteer Host
Mar 25, 2016
4,684
0
I don't have experience of caring for a long-term smoker but there are a couple in Mum's care home and they aren't given access to a lighter or cigarettes due to the safety risks - to others as well as themselves. The carers give them a cigarette and light it for them when they are taken outside for a smoke. As you've identified, there is a real risk of fire when your Mum has access to a lighter - would you be able to control her access to the lighters or is she able to go out and buy them herself?
 

Betenoir71

Registered User
Jun 20, 2019
23
0
I do try to restrict her access to lighters, but she hides them in her pockets sometimes and tries to turn her back so I can’t see what she is doing (but I’ve got wise now!). But this causes yet another battle, harsh words and bad feeling, which I am trying so hard to avoid. She says smoking is the only pleasure she has, and this is true, I know safety trumps that, but I still feel crappy about it.
 

Splashing About

Registered User
Oct 20, 2019
434
0
Most fire brigades do home visits to vulnerable people to give advice. I’d contact your local brigade, they are used to advising in all sorts of conditions such as deafness and I’m sure dementia
 

Maisie1

Registered User
Dec 24, 2019
11
0
Hi, my mum smokes, she forgets who I am but knows she smokes. I have taken all lighters I could find, so she asks me for a light. I tell her I’ll look for one, she lights up and hands it back so I can “loose” it. I check ashtray to make sure out. When she didn’t smoke for a day she got withdrawal anxious and bad tempered. Has anyone tried patches for the PWD? As for her cigarettes I keep 2 in a packet for her which seems to work. She knows she has to stand near window to smoke. Good luck x