Not to mention that whenever I light a candle, my air filter spins up and my air quality monitor says pm2.5 peaks.

Yeah my wife once fell asleep with a candle burning. It lit fire to the decorative candle holder and some kids clothes lying on the table. Luckily the IKEA table was fire-resistent so the fire extinguished itself but I came home to a home full of smoke and my wife asleep in the middle of it and it was the scare of my life.

Also bought smoke alarms for every room of the house after that (the hard-wired fire alarm in the apartment was heat activated only I guess)

>> Ive known several people that died from candles

That can't possibly be true - unless of them all died in the same accident?