Having working alarms in a pair of Callander homes over the past two weeks probably saved the lives of nine residents says Fire Chief Todd Daley.
The department got two calls from two different homes regarding carbon monoxide (CO) alarms being triggered.
"In both cases, there were dangerous levels of CO being emitted by a faulty appliance," Daley told BayToday. "If the residents didn't have a working CO alarm in their homes they wouldn't have been warned of that gas and it probably would have been fatal."
One call was from two adults living in an apartment but the other one was a family of seven with children ranging in age from a 10-year-old to an infant.
"They evacuated their house and called 911 and we responded and found the source of the problem," explained Daley.
"You see sad news stories about people dying in fires or people dying because of carbon monoxide and here's two responsible homeowners with working CO and smoke alarms in their home and were alerted to the danger."
All were relieved to be safe but Daley says he got the impression they didn't want to inconvenience the fire department...a common feeling.
"I tell people all the time when we show up, do not be sorry, this is what you need to do. It's a simple problem. it's a chance to educate them and I don't have an issue with that. The bigger problem is when your CO alarm does activate and you don't call anyone because you're taking a real chance.
"This is what we do. Members of the fire department sign up to serve the community and when they're available, they respond and they do it willingly."
Daley, a full-time chief, says his department gets about 15 similar calls a year with few being real issues, usually a problem with the alarm.
"Having nine people die because they didn't have working CO alarms would be a lifetime of grief for the families but it would affect the members of the fire department absolutely.'
The Callander Fire Department gets, on average, 130 calls a year.
Some other tips from Daley:
- check the expiry date on your alarms, usually seven years from manufacture
- put the alarms outside the area you are sleeping
- if you have two different sleeping levels have an alarm for each one
- smoke alarms need to be on every level of the house and installed outside of sleeping areas, test monthly and replace batteries when you change the time on your clocks
