The province made it law on October 15th that carbon monoxide detectors are required in your home or apartment.
However, a tragic incident connected to North Bay led the local fire department and the City of North Bay to enact a carbon monoxide by-Law back in 2009.
In 2008, North Bay native Laurie Hawkins, her husband Richard, their children Cassie and Jordan, all died from CO poisoning in Woodstock, Ontario.
“ A handful of communities had already enacted it and many times it was because something happened close to that community, and as you know unfortunately the North Bay community was hit hard because both families that were involved with that came from here,” said Fire Chief Grant Love, noting one of his firefighters was the brother of the Laurie Hawkins who passed away on that tragic day in December of 2008.
A blocked gas fireplace vent sent carbon monoxide through their Woodstock home which did not contain any warning devices.
The provincial government estimates the odourless, colourless gas kills about 50 Canadians, including 11 Ontarian’s, every year.
Love believes the fall is one of the most dangerous times for the silent killer to appear.
“The change in temperature is when people start heating, and that typically is the time when your equipment has been sitting around for the summer, so if there’s a chance they are not going to be working properly it is typically in start-up,” said Love.
“Carbon Monoxide is given off when there is incomplete combustion of the fuel so if there’s a problem with your furnace or fireplace or any fuel burning appliance, that’s where the issue comes from.”
Love adds that attached garages can be dangerous spreaders of carbon monoxide.
“If you have an attached garage and you run your vehicle in your garage and the alarm goes off in the house that’s telling you that you have a migration of the carbon monoxide and other poisonous gasses that are coming from your garage and into your home. So that’s something to be looking at as well as making sure the alarm works,” said Love.
Love continues that even a home heated by a wood stove can still create deadly carbon monoxide.
He says that home owners found without carbon monoxide detectors can face a warning or a fine.
“There are a few choices, provincial offences ticket or you can go to a fine.The fine would be more for somebody who hasn’t been compliant in the past or it's a real high safety issue, say an apartment complex or a housing complex that is effecting more than one person or one family,” he said.
The province plans to hold its first Carbon Monoxide Awareness week starting on November 1st.
Devices cost anywhere between 30 to $60.
