Enbridge Gas has donated 126 combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarms to the Plympton-Wyoming Fire Department to help its residents stay safe.
Article content
The donation was made Thursday through the safe community Project Zero public education campaign run with the Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council.
The campaign is providing more than 14,500 alarms to residents in 75 Ontario communities, including 282 donated in October to Sarnia Fire Rescue Services.
William Davison, acting fire chief in Plympton-Wyoming, said the department is grateful to the project for the donation.
“The residents of Plympton-Wyoming will benefit greatly from this donation and the program helps us bring awareness to the community about the benefit of having working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms,” Davidson said. “Working alarms save lives.”
Properly installed and maintained smoke and carbon monoxide alarms provide an early warning to escape from a house fire or carbon monoxide exposure, the project said in a news release.
Article content
Carbon monoxide is a toxic, odorless gas by-product of incomplete combustion of many types of common fuels, it said.
There were 121 fire-related deaths in Ontario in 2023, down from 133 in 2022, the most in two decades.
“Across Ontario there is a renewed focus on the importance of having working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in your home,” John McBeth, acting Ontario Fire Marshal, said in the release.
The project’s aim is to deliver alarms to areas where they are needed the most and help “fire departments educate their communities about the requirements to have working smoke alarms installed in all Ontario homes and for all Ontario homes to have a carbon monoxide alarm if they have a fuel-burning appliance or an attached garage,” he said.
During the past 16 years, the project has provided more than 101,000 alarms to fire departments in the province.
This year, Enbridge Gas donated $450,000 to the project.
“These alarms are a critical second line of defense against carbon monoxide poisoning, known as ‘the silent killer’,” Robin Ellwood, the company supervisor of operations in Sarnia, said in the release.
“We’re proud to support our communities and raise awareness and help Ontarians implement these protection strategies,” Ellwood said.
Share this article in your social network