Fire officials remind residents to change batteries and check expiry on smoke and carbon monoxide alarms this weekend
Daylight saving weekend is this weekend, usually the time to also think about checking smoke and fire alarms around your home.
After an unexpected wake up call Sunday afternoon, one Guelph family learned why a working alarm can be a life saver.
“(My wife) was upstairs reading, napping,” Alan Yee said in an interview from his Guelph home.
“And I decided to do my reading down here (in the living room, adjacent to the kitchen), sitting on the couch.”
A lazy Sunday afternoon. A Sunday roast was cooking in the oven.
Then out of the blue, Yee said the carbon monoxide alarm went off in the kitchen.
He later discovered the alarm in the basement was also going off, as was the one on the second floor.
“That’s the first time in 14 years it’s gone off,” Yee said. “We’ve set off the smoke detectors before, but not the carbon monoxide, and I said ‘that’s weird.’”
Unsure of what to do, he woke up his wife, opened up the windows and doors and a 911 call later, both were instructed to go outside with their two dogs.
Guelph fire officials showed up soon after. Firefighters got readings of carbon monoxide in the home, as did the gas company when they arrived.
“The technician said the (gas-fuelled) stove – which has now been replaced – was what was causing the problem,” Yee said.
The gas had to be shut off, and Yee had to replace the stove, but had to get a tech to sign off to give the go-ahead to get the new one up and running.
It took a couple of days, so the family used the microwave in the interim.
But more importantly, Yee said he is thankful he didn’t fall asleep, as the situation could have been a lot worse.
“Don’t take the smoke detectors and the carbon monoxide detectors for granted,” he said.
“It can save your lives for sure. They’re definitely awesome at alerting someone.”
The Ontario Fire Code requires you to have carbon monoxide detectors installed and functioning at all times in your home.
“If you have a fuel-burning appliance in your home, such as a natural gas furnace, water heater, clothes dryer, gas stove, if you have a wood-burning fireplace, or if you have an attached garage, the Ontario Fire Code requires you to have a carbon monoxide alarm installed adjacent to all sleeping areas,” said Matt Valeriote, assistant chief fire prevention officer with Guelph Fire.
He said homes with fuel-burning appliances, wood-burning fireplaces and attached garages all have potential to have elevated and unsafe levels of CO in the home.
Carbon monoxide is a gas that is odourless, tasteless and colourless.
Common symptoms of CO poisoning include a headache, dizziness, weakness, upset stomach, vomiting, chest pain or confusion.
Valeriote said there may be times where the alarm activates and you don’t have any symptoms.
But that doesn’t matter.
“Whether you have symptoms or not, you should treat every alarm activation as having the potential to be the real thing,” he said.
If a CO alarm goes off, you’re asked to open all the windows and doors in your home, evacuate and call 911 from outside.
“If there is a carbon monoxide issue in your home, and you’ve opened all your windows, we may struggle to properly diagnose the problem because the house is being ventilated,” Valeriote noted.
With Sunday’s time change, Valeriote said this is a great reminder to ensure your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are in working order.
That includes replacing the batteries, and ensuring the alarm hasn’t crossed its expiration date.
“When you purchase your alarm, you’ll find a date of manufacture on the alarm,” Valeriote said.
“And then if you look at the manufacturer’s instructions, it will tell you how long that alarm is good for.”
He didn’t have statistics on how many homes officials encounter without working smoke or CO alarms, but “we encounter it enough where it becomes concerning.”
For Yee, this recent scare just reinforces what he has planned for Sunday.
“I have a note for myself this weekend to make sure I go through and check all the other detectors, as a way to have peace of mind,” he said.