A Shirley hoarder caused a fire in his home by dropping a cigarette butt on a stack of paper.

The experience of the Shirley man, referred to as J, was shared by the fire service to warn about the fire risks of hoarding.

Fire crews were alerted by the Telecare company after it was notified a smoke detector had gone off in the 65-year-old's home.

A discarded cigarette caused a pile of paperwork to catch alight - but thankfully firefighters were able to put it out.

He lived in a semi-detached property and had a previous career in finance - but had fallen on hard times, with limited mobility and dependency on alcohol, along with hoarding.

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Due to these issues there were concerns about his ability to respond to a fire - so a safeguarding enquiry was launched and closed a few months later as safety at J's home had improved.

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service shared the 2020 incident to promote National Hoarding Awareness Week.

It also shared the story of D, a 67-year-old who lived alone and began collecting items to sell for money to send to Uganda, where his wife was from.

As the items mounted up, D couldn’t throw these away as he didn’t like to see waste.

In August 2021, D was cooking and fell asleep right next to the chips he was frying and he was only notified as the telecare smoke alarm activated.

Thankfully, it did not lead to a fire - but due to support from social services the risk of future fires has been reduced.

The fire service said there was a strong link between hoarding and fires and that hoarding affects 2-5 per cent of the UK population, including residents in Southampton.

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service Safeguarding Lead, Laura Cane-Andrews, said: “Our home fire safety visits play a huge part in identifying and supporting members of our community who may be displaying hoarding behaviours.

“This helps to ensure they remain safe but can also receive any support they may want and need.

“We work closely with the individual and multi-agency partners to reduce the fire risks in the home.”