The Tokyo Fire Department on Saturday warned residents of the capital to watch out for cigarette fires, which officials say have already killed 17 people in 200 fires in the first two months of this year.
This year's death toll is up sharply from last year's figures. In the whole of 2002, 36 people died in cigarette-related fires in metropolitan Tokyo -- the highest figure in the past decade.
Fire officials said 14 of the 17 fatal fires were started by inflammable objects that caught fire from smoldering cigarette ash.
The remaining three fatal fires were started by cigarette ash in garbage cans.
Ten of the 17 people killed were over 60.
Citing two fatal fires in February, fire officials said a 45-year-old man died in a fire in Hino city that was triggered by smoldering ash in a garbage can. A 46-year-old man in Nerima Ward was killed after a cigarette he was smoking in bed burned the mattress he was sleeping on, triggering a house fire.
"Even if a cigarette appears to have been extinguished, the core remains extremely hot, with the temperature reaching 700 C to 800 C," the fire department said, reminding smokers to make sure cigarettes are completely extinguished before they are thrown away.