Carbon Monoxide Awareness Week

Friday, 30 October 2015 14:35

Local fire detachments have received dozens of CO Detectors thanks to a special partnership

OXFORD COUNTY - Several Oxford County Fire Detachments are recognizing CO Awareness Week.

Ingersoll and the Tillsonburg Fire Departments have received CO detectors that will be distributed to those within the county who currently are without one. MPP of Oxford, Ernie Hardeman, knows carbon monoxide poisoning is a very serious issue in this community. "There is no way that you can tell whether you have carbon monoxide in your home without a detector, the important part is to build that awareness, we have to find a way to make sure everyone has the ability to have one. From the fire departments perspective making sure that they don't leave a home unprotected when there has been a call." It was nearly one year ago since Hardeman passed his bill that would mandate every home be equipped with the life saving device.

Fire Chief of Ingersoll, John Holmes, explains if their is still a need to distribute the detectors, and how long they can last. "We're going to do our very best to get these out into the community. We had a by-law in place in the Town of Ingersoll a couple of years before Ernie's bill passed so the residents of Ingersoll are very aware that they need them. It has been well received, there is still a need out there, each manufacturer is a little bit different in how long they will last on average it is between 5 to 7 years."

Hardeman has teamed up with the Insurance Bureau of Canada to make this possible and the Director of Government Relations for the IBC, Doug DeRabbie, feels this initiative is far from over. "Once we understood the impact that this gas has we wanted to work together to raise awareness to get alarms into people's homes. We're hoping that with the fire services they are able to use these alarms for loaner programs, basically we want to keep doing this until everyone has an alarm in their house." This comes just in time for CO awareness week and is part of the 5,000 detectors that have been handed out across the province.