THE dangers of smoking were highlighted by a team of health and fire chiefs in the North-East yesterday.
As one of a host of events across the region to mark National No Smoking Day, Darlington Primary Care Trust's smoking cessation officer, Darcy Brown, and the town's community fire safety officer, Dave Elms, manned a display in the Cornmill Centre.
In the UK, 25 per cent of the population smokes and 125,000 people a year die as a result. It costs the National Health Service £5m-a-day to treat smokers.
Nationally, 40 per cent of the 600 fatal house fires a year are attributed to smoking materials. A third of the victims are children.
Mr Brown said: "National No Smoking day can be the trigger people need to stop. If people do quit there is no shortage of help available from myself and GPs."
Mr Elms gave up smoking nine years ago after being nagged by his children. He said: "You won't find anyone over at Darlington fire station who does smoke nowadays. It's the largest cause of house fires and we see some terrible things."
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