Smoker started a fire

[Dennis Tierney]

3 am Sunday a tenant smoking on the apartment porch carelessly discarded a cigarette and started a fire that destroyed the top 4 units in a 24 unit building. Fortunatley no one was hurt and the firemen saved the rest of the building (heros all). The insurance co. and management co were on the ball and we have loss of income provision on the insurance so will be out "only" the deductable. We of course won't be able to get any recourse from the tenant, but, at least his was one of the units completely destroyed so he lost also in his careless act. I was thinking of banning smoking for awhile ,but, now have resolved to ban all smoking in and around all my apartments. The manager said from her experience most smoker fires are from the porch/patio location and not inside the units so just banning interior smoking isn't enough protection. Sad how thoughtless people can be.