Thrice Upon a Mattress

There have been unrelated reports in just the past week of apartment fires triggered when a mattress went ablaze:

• Thursday, February 19, 2009 -- "Careless smoking in bed" caused a mattress to catch fire in a Pasadena, Maryland apartment. Two tenants were hospitalized for burns and smoke inhalation, and the damage is estimated at $5,000, according to the Baltimore Sun.
  
  
• Wednesday, February 18, 2009 -- Some 57 firefighters battled a mattress fire in an apartment in Abbotsford, British Columbia, according to The Abbotsford Times. The tenant was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation, and both the apartment and the one below it suffered fire and water damage (from the activated sprinkler system).
  
  
• Monday, February 16, 2009 -- A guest fell asleep with a lit cigarette, which triggered a mattress fire in an apartment inside a two-family house in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. The tenant and his guest made it to safety, but their pet macaw wasn't as lucky and the entire house was rendered uninhabitable, according to the Asbury Park Press.

These stories are sobering reminders of how flammable a mattress is, and how you can't be too careful when it comes to having cigarettes, matches, lighters, candles, and the like near your bed.