Project Zero campaign aims to improve home fire, carbon-monoxide safety

Sault Ste. Marie Fire Services has teamed up with the Ontario Fire Marshal and Enbridge Gas to help improve home fire and carbon-monoxide safety, states a news release issued today.

“A properly installed and maintained smoke alarm is the only thing in your home that can alert you and your family to a fire 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Sault Fire Chief Peter Johnson in the release.

Full text of the release follows:

Today, Enbridge Gas, the Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council and Sault Fire Services announced they are working to improve home safety and bring fire and carbon monoxide-related deaths down to zero.

Sault Ste. Marie Fire Services received 282 combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarms through Safe Community Project Zero – a public education campaign that will provide over 16,600 alarms to residents in 70 municipalities across Ontario.

This year, Enbridge Gas invested $500,000 in Safe Community Project Zero, and over the past 13 years, the program has provided more than 68,000 alarms to Ontario fire departments.

When properly installed and maintained, combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarms help provide the early warning to safely escape from a house fire or carbon monoxide exposure. Carbon monoxide is a toxic, odourless gas that is a by-product of incomplete combustion of many types of common fuels.

“Carbon monoxide is known as the ‘silent killer’ for a reason, and we have proof that prevention saves lives. We know that the best way to avoid carbon monoxide exposure is to eliminate it at the source by properly maintaining fuel-burning equipment, and that the alarms are a critical second line of defense to protect against carbon monoxide poisoning,” says Luke Skaarup, director, Northern Region Operations, Enbridge Gas.

“The objective of Safe Community Project Zero is to deliver combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarms to Ontario communities who need them the most,” says Jon Pegg, Ontario fire marshal and chair of the Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council. “It’s a program that fire departments can adopt to help educate their communities about the requirement for all Ontario homes to have a CO alarm if they have a fuel-burning appliance or an attached garage.”

“A properly installed and maintained smoke alarm is the only thing in your home that can alert you and your family to a fire 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” says Peter Johnson, fire chief of Sault Ste. Marie Fire Services. “Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms must be maintained! The safety of everyone in your household depends on it.”