--- title: Bird with Cigarette Causes London Fire description: London Fire Brigade blames bird carrying cigarette for starting fire in a building. canonical: https://time.com/14460/london-fire-blamed-on-bird-carrying-cigarette/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-06T20:59:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:07:33.905Z og:title: London Fire Blamed on Bird Carrying Cigarette og:description: No one was hurt og:url: https://time.com/14460/london-fire-blamed-on-bird-carrying-cigarette/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: London Fire Blamed on Bird Carrying Cigarette twitter:description: No one was hurt twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # London Fire Blamed on Bird Carrying Cigarette > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Mar 6, 2014 8:59 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Mar 6, 2014 8:59 PM UTC Firefighters believe a bird carrying a cigarette caused a fire in a London building last night. [In a statement](http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/LatestIncidentsContainer%5FBirdpinchessmokingbutt.asp#.Uxi6%5F6UdVjY), Fire Investigation Officer Matt Cullen said, “Neighbours told us they often saw birds flying in and out of a hole in the roof. We believe that one of the birds picked up a cigarette butt that was still smouldering and dropped it into the nest, causing it to catch fire and set the roof alight.” Fire investigators were baffled until they found the smoking gun - a partially burnt birds nest. [#smokingbird](https://twitter.com/hashtag/smokingbird?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) [pic.twitter.com/oRxzxXsbGI](http://t.co/oRxzxXsbGI) — London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) [March 6, 2014](https://twitter.com/LondonFire/status/441521614044143616?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) Make sure you put your cigarettes out fully! You never know who might pinch your smouldering butts! [#smokingbird](https://twitter.com/hashtag/smokingbird?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) — London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) [March 6, 2014](https://twitter.com/LondonFire/status/441520505829720065?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) Nine people fled the building in the city’s Stockwell neighborhood when the fire broke out, but no injuries have been reported. [On Twitter](https://twitter.com/dorkingstoves/status/441537993074294785), the London Fire Brigade retweeted a joke from a local retailer: [@LondonFire](https://twitter.com/LondonFire?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) Presumably it was a Puffin' ? — Dorking Stoves (@dorkingstoves) [March 6, 2014](https://twitter.com/dorkingstoves/status/441537993074294785?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) (h/t [BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-26464789)) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/14460/london-fire-blamed-on-bird-carrying-cigarette/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/14460/london-fire-blamed-on-bird-carrying-cigarette/"},"headline":"London Fire Blamed on Bird Carrying Cigarette","datePublished":"2014-03-06T20:59:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:07:33.905Z","description":"No one was hurt","url":"https://time.com/14460/london-fire-blamed-on-bird-carrying-cigarette/","keywords":["Newsfeed","World"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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