A fire started by a cigarette lost a university student all his belongings - including his course work - the day after No Smoking Day.
Today's blaze gutted his room at the house in Dene Road, Headington, Oxford, which he shared with five other students at Oxford Brookes University.
Fire safety officer Steve Vermeulen said: "An ashtray was emptied into a wastebin. The cigarettes weren't out and that caused the fire.
"All the students got out without any problem. The reason they knew about the fire was because it burned through electric cabling which short-circuited and blew the fuses, so all the lights went out.
"As soon as the house plunged into darkness the students went and saw what was happening."
There was only one smoke detector in the house and the battery had not been fitted properly.
Story date: Thursday 11 March
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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