Wednesday, January 9, 2008; Posted 7:00 pm (CDT)

In recent weeks fires have been seen at an increase in the southwest part of our state. Many of the fires are being blamed on human carelessness, such as throwing a cigarette out a car window.

Last year nearly 900 people were killed in a fire started by a cigarette nationwide. One state legislator wants to put a stop to those fires, and plans to introduce a bill that will.

"We have a large problem with wild fires here in the state and also with house fires and the State Fire Marshals Office and I have investigated this," says Representative Joe Dorman, D-Rush Springs.

In the investigation they saw that most of the wild fires are caused cigarettes, but changing the paper on cigarettes could reduce the number of fires.

The new paper has barriers in it. If a person does not inhale on the cigarette it will go out in moments.

The National Weather Service says wild fires can be especially dangerous if the conditions are right.

"It is a day when we get real strong winds, basically up to 25 mph, with low relative humidity 20 percent or less," says Scott Curl, with the National Weather Service.

Wednesday six counties in southwest Oklahoma met those conditions. Those conditions plus with human carelessness can equal fire.

"People smoking, throwing cigarettes out the window, not thinking about what they are doing, that can cause a problem," says Curl.

Representative Dorman knows that problem first hand, in 2006 a firefighter died in his district.

"It will not only kill the smoker but it also affects spouses, their children, their grandparents that might be living with them, a lot of times it will affect their neighbors," says Dorman.

Discarded cigarettes are responsible for more than half the wildfires in the nation, but one-quarter of the victims aren’t smokers.