Be sure to dial those numbers from your cell phone while driving through the mountains west of Denver to report a butt thrown out the window. Be sure to get a pen and paper and wrote down the plate number while driving your car in cruise control. yeah that's smart. or better yet, dial 911 and tell them it's an emergency.

Addicts will do anything to reverse the logic of what is in the public interest: to protect their addiction, they will put the ability to behave as badly as possible at the top of the list of "democratic virtues." <BR><BR>It's the 10-year-old "you're not the boss of me" warping of all argument.

Yeah, smoking, and the freedom to ride motorcycles without helmets.

Troll Alert!

As reported in Sat Summit Daily News<BR><BR>Fire authorities say most fires in the High Country are caused by people who toss lighted cigarette butts from car windows, don't properly extinguish campfires or who light fireworks."

I have strong feelings about how inconsiderate smokers are, but I won't share them here. Wrong place, wrong time.<BR><BR>I would hope not throwing cigarettes, starting campfires, and using fireworks right now in CO is only common sense. Apparently not.<BR><BR>

Hmmmm, after blaming all the smokers it seems that it was a forest ranger who started the fire. Now what do you have to say?!

Mr. Troll no one blamed the fire on smokers. This thread is simply a warning to please be careful. Why are some smokers so upset by this? I would think that if you smoke you would be grateful for this warning. I would bet that ALL smokers at one time or another have tossed their lighted cigs out the window, not with any malice intent but simply not thinking abut it.<BR><BR>This past weekend I was up at Keystone, I watched a well-dressed middle aged women flick her cigarettes into a pile of wood chip mulch. The second time a waiter politely brought her an ashtray explained the fire danger. She was apologetic, but until that point she thought it was fine to throw her nasty cigs where we could all enjoy them.<BR><BR>Is it asking to much of smokers to use an ashtray and not to litter? <BR>

ttt

"""Hmmmm, after blaming all the smokers it seems that it was a forest ranger who started the fire. Now what do you have to say?!"""<BR><BR>So I guess my list of "The Things That Smokers do to Piss Me Off" goes from 1,076 to 1,075. Thanks for the head's-up.

me, cheer up!<BR><BR>They're still thinking that a cigarette caused the Missionary Ridge Fire near Durango. So far it's burned over 42 square miles of forest.

travellyn, I had not heard that. what a waste. <BR><BR>Saw this in todays Vail newspaper<BR>"Smoking is already prohibited in the national forest, except in building and cars, and state troopers will be on the lookout for drivers flicking cigarettes out of car windows."<BR><BR>

Part of an article in the Denver paper OP/ED section today:<BR><BR>"It may be harder to stop people from smoking on public lands, but the government also should permanently bar people from lighting up in national forests and parks unless they're inside buildings.<BR><BR>During 2000's awful fire season, smokers ignited nearly 3,900 wildfires on federal lands, incinerating more than 100,000 acres. In the rare cases that cops catch someone tossing a burning cigarette on the ground, they probably just write a ticket for littering. They should arrest the idiots for attempted arson.<BR><BR>If you doubt how seriously a tossed cigarette threatens public property and human lives, just ask the thousands of people whose homes are in the path of the Missionary Ridge inferno near Durango, a blaze investigators believe was caused by some imbecile flinging a still-burning butt onto the tinder-dry ground."<BR><BR>

Newspapers are now reporting that the Forest Service worker intentionally set the fire and that it had nothing to do with the ex's letter. Today's NY times reports it was set intentionally using brush to make it look like the fire jumped the fire ring. Idiot.

I haven't bought that ex husband letter story from the beginning. It just seemed there had to be something else. Who would love the forest so much as she supposedly did and do something like that with a stupid letter. There have been rumors ever since she "confessed" that she set it intenionally to put it out and look like a hero but it got out of control before she could. Whatever the case she has some screws loose.

Don;t be so quick to blame the smokers for the fires. Look what turned out in the Colorado fire. ONE OF YOUR OWN did it! So before you rush to judgement, wait for the facts. Not all smokers are careless. Not all non-smokers are angels either.

The Hayman fire was started by the forest worker. You are right she is an idiot! ppl are VERY angry.<BR><BR>The Missionary Ridge Fire is the one they think was started by a cigarette, another idiot!

Look on the bright side folks,,,with the crackdown on underage smoking, the pool of smokers is getting smaller and smaller every year. Those smoking today will die off one by one...and before you know it,,ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

LOL Paul! I am hopeing that smokers may get so mad they decide to boycott Colorado! Come on smokers unite. boycott Colorado! That'll show em!

To all you non smokers, I guess you all NEVER pollute? You don't drive, you don't put out trash on trash day, you never take a dump, you never gag people with your perfume? Listen, alot of people who smoke would like to quit, but it has been proven it is harder than heroin to quit. So...why don't you all lighten up. If you don't like smoke, stay away! Most people are trying to be considerate when they smoke. Its just like anything else, where there are the bad apples. Last I checked, its still legal.