A DISCARDED cigarette caused a fire in a garden in Bury, damaging decking and guttering.

Three fire crews were called to the house in Clayton Close, where watch manager Steve Wilcock said a cigarette had been discarded in a planter allowing it to cause the fire.

Mr Wilcock said: "It was caused by a carelessly discarded cigarettes which had been put in a planter.

"Decking has been affected, it's been destroyed. There's scorching to the back of the house with the windows damaged externally but the house hasn't been affected inside. The windows are cracked and the guttering melted at the top but thankfully it's all external."

The crew were called to the incident at 6.55pm last night and spent around an hour putting the fire out and making the area safe.

Mr Wilcock warned about the dangers of not putting cigarettes out properly, saying dry grass, paper and peat all burn extremely well and the dry weather had led to a noticeable increase in fires.

He said: "Because it's been that hot everything is really dry, cigarettes smoulder and transfer that onto something else. There's an incubation period and a void opens up and then the air flow happens and as the air moves through it grows and that's when you get the flames.

"Cigarettes only cause about six per cent of fires but 46 per cent of fire fatalities are attributable to cigarettes.

"Throwing one out of a window can tie up crews for hours with grass fires.

"Be safe around cigarettes, we don't see as many cigarette fires as we did but for those that smoke, it's about being responsible. Especially whilst we have this fantastic weather you need to make sure it's out properly."

Mr Wilcock said having a designated smoking area where you can put your cigarette out in sand, wiggling the stub to make sure it is out was good practice.