The fire chief in Thunder Bay is speaking out about the need for smoke detectors following the deaths of four people in three fatal house fires, in less than a month in the northwestern Ontario city, which until October had not had a fatal fire since 2012.
The first death occurred in a townhouse fire on Trillium Way in mid-October, followed by two deaths in a mobile home fire on Taylor Drive at the end of October, while the fourth fatality occurred in a house fire on Walkover Street at the beginning of November.
"We're considering fire detection and the smoke detectors surrounding some, if not all of these calls," said John Hay, the chief of Thunder Bay Fire Rescue (TBFR), noting the investigations into the fires are still ongoing. "It was an issue with most of the fatalities, if not all of them."
Hay said he's concerned the messaging around the importance of smoke detectors "doesn't seem to be getting out as widespread or as effectively as we had hoped," despite an intensive public education campaign, and many school visits.
"In this day and age, everyone knows about smoke detectors. It's in the media, it's on tv, it's on social media. If you don't do it, you're being irresponsible, you're not protecting yourself, your family and you're breaking the law."
Early fire detection offers the only chance for people to safely escape a house fire, and that early warning only comes from working smoke alarms, Hay said.
"They're your first line of defence and the second line of defence is your reaction to them. If the smoke detector goes off, you need to leave, and you need to leave quickly."
'We do not expect to lose people'
Hay said it's difficult on families and firefighters, knowing these deaths might have been prevented.
'These are not very happy situations for us. It goes against what we expect to be able to do. We do not expect to lose people. We expect to succeed. It's part of our world that these things do happen but I don't think any of them took it very lightly or very easily that we had deaths."
In the past decade, seven people have died in house fires in Thunder Bay, including the four who perished this fall. The Thunder Bay fire service has responded to approximately 1400 structural fire over that same 10-year period.
Hay said people can apply to the SAFE program - Smoke Alarms For Everyone - which makes the detectors available to anyone in Thunder Bay who might not be able to afford the device or "install them on their own, which can be just as problematic as not having one."
Hope to prevent a Christmas tragedy
In the coming months, Hay said TBFR plans to "up our game with the smoke detector program", including talking to landlord and tenant groups to try and raise more awareness about the value of smoke detectors.
With Christmas approaching, Hay said he wanted to sound the alarms now, in the hopes of preventing a holiday tragedy.
Link to original article in CBC News: 1 month, 3 fires, 4 deaths: Thunder Bay fire chief speaks out about need for smoke detector