When the alarms went off at the Laconia Area Land Trust’s buildings on Jameson Street Jan. 28, Daniel Virgin, 50, had fallen asleep while smoking and using oxygen, officials believe.

Virgin suffered severe injuries and there was significant damage to the building.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates there are 1 million Americans on long-term oxygen therapy covered by Medicare. Fire officials say that oxygen saturates fabric and hair. It will not explode, but acts as an accelerant, making a fire burn faster and hotter.

The state Fire Marshal’s office is collecting data in hopes of developing a public awareness campaign about the dangers of smoking while using oxygen.

“It is a consistent problem,” Manchester Deputy Fire Marshal Peter Lennon said, noting his department deals with several severe cases a year.

In October 2009, Manchester Housing and Redevelopment Authority Elmwood Gardens resident Marlen Clark, 57, suffered second- and third-degree burns to her face and arms due to an oxygen-fueled fire involving a lit cigarette.

Clark recovered, only to die two years later in a similar incident in which she was smoking while using oxygen, officials said.

Lennon recalled a case on Beech Hill in which a man died.

“He was smoking with the oxygen on and the oxygen line caught on fire. He tried to put it out with his feet,” Lennon said. That man died of a heart attack while trying to put out the fire, Lennon said.

Another more recent case involved a veteran from Maine. He came to the Manchester Veterans Administration hospital after being injured in an oxygen-related smoking incident, Lennon said.

In 2007, a fire in a Westbrook, Maine, public housing unit injured six; officials concluded the blaze was related to smoking and oxygen use. The Maine Department of Public Health launched a study and was joined by New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Oklahoma. That study found that between 2000 and 2007, there were 38 deaths — three in New Hampshire — involving smoking and medical oxygen.

The state Fire Marshal’s office is asking fire departments across the state to help fill in the numbers from 2007 to the present, so officials can get a better handle on the number of fires involving medical oxygen and the public safety risk.

Dick Dunfey is executive director of the Manchester Housing and Redevelopment Authority. He said while tenant rules do not explicitly state there is no smoking with oxygen tanks in the city’s more than 1,500 publicly subsidized units, it qualifies as a life safety hazard and is prohibited in the lease.

He noted in the Trahan Street fire in which Marlen Clark was injured, a number of apartments were damaged. Dunfey said it was his understanding the woman believed to have caused the fire died and, therefore, no eviction process went forward.

“It’s conceivable with the burgeoning aging population, there will be more incidents and perhaps more regulations explicitly dealing with the issue,” Dunfey said.

To find the link to the state’s survey on fires related to smoking near medical oxygen visit http://www.nh.gov/safety/divisions/firesafety/incident/index.html.

ptracy@unionleader.com