500 low-income London families to receive free CO alarms

Forty people died in Ontario due to carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning in 2023, the province says, just as the local fire department launched a program to distribute nearly 500 CO alarms across the city.

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A colourless, odorless gas, most commonly produced by partial combustion of fuels containing carbon, CO can at high concentrations cause disorientation, unconsciousness and even death.

“To me, 40 deaths is a huge number because it’s preventable,” said Jamie Kovacs, executive director of the Fire Marshal’s public fire safety council.

“These are 40 families who have lost someone who can’t be replaced.”

The figures were shared Thursday as the London fire department received a donation of 498 CO alarms from Enbridge Gas, as part of a program to distribute the life-saving devices among low-income families in Ontario.

Locally, the London fire department has partnered with Atlohsa Family Healing Services to choose the homes where the new smoke and CO alarms will be installed.

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“These alarms are going to find their way into homes that need them,” Kovacs said. “For families that struggle to put groceries on the table, this is one of the last things they’re thinking about.

“The unfortunate thing is these alarms are the only thing that are going to wake them up and get them up in the middle of the night.”

At the event, London Mayor Josh Morgan shared a personal experience in which he said a CO alarm helped him realize the poisonous gas was leaking into his home from his garage.

“The lesson I learned that day was that these are incredibly important safety tools that each and every person should have access to in all homes because, in an instant, you can realize there is a challenge or a problem,” he said.

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“If you don’t have one, you need to reach out for support to get one. And today, we can get more in the hands of those who need it.”

CO alarms became mandatory in all Ontario homes in 2014 after then Oxford Progressive Conservative MPP Ernie Hardeman introduced a private member’s bill following the death in 2008 of OPP officer Laurie Hawkins, her husband Richard and their two children. The family died of carbon monoxide poisoning because of a poorly ventilated fireplace in the basement of their Woodstock home.

By law, such alarms must be installed on all floors of a home and outside sleeping areas.

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