Fire Departments

The best way to survive a fire is not to have one in the first place. Good fire safety practices, such as taking care when cooking and smoking, will help to keep your home and your family safe. If the unthinkable happens and a fire occurs, a working smoke alarm on every level of your home will alert you and your family to the danger. By developing and practicing a home escape plan, everyone will know what to do and where to go when the alarm sounds. Please take a few minutes with every member of your household to make an escape plan, following the simple instructions below.

1. Draw a floor plan of your home. Use a grid to draw a floor plan of your home. You should draw a plan for each level of your home.
2. Include all possible emergency exits. Draw in all the doors, windows and stairs. This will show you and your family all possible escape routes at a glance. Include any features, such as the roof of a garage or porch, that would help in your escape.
3. Mark two ways out of every room. The main exit from each room will be the door. However, if the door is blocked by smoke or fire, you must have a alternate escape route, which could be a window. Make sure that all windows can open easily and that everyone knows how to escape through them safely. If windows or doors have security bars, equip them with quick-release devices.
4. Does anyone need help to escape? Decide in advance who will assist the very young, elderly or physically challenged members of your household. A few minutes of planning will save valuable seconds in a real emergency.
5. Choose a meeting place outside. Choose a meeting place a safe distance from your home that everyone will remember. A tree, street light or a neighbour's home are all good choices. In case of fire, everyone will go directly to this meeting place so they can be accounted for.
6. Call the fire department from a neighbour's home. Once at the meeting place, call the fire department from a neighbour's phone. Do not try to re-enter your home for any reason.
7. Practice your escape. Review the plan with everyone in your household. Walk through the escape routes for each room with the entire family. Use this walk-through exercise to check your escape routes, making sure all exits are practical and easy to use. Then hold a fire drill twice a year. In a real fire, you must react without hesitation as your escape routes may be quickly blocked by smoke or flames.
8. If you live in a highrise building... Plan ahead---review your building's emergency procedures to learm about the fire alarm and voice communication systems. If the alarm sounds and there is no visible smoke or flame in the hall, leave your apartment quickly, closing the door behind you. Use the stairs---never the elevator---to exit the building. If your exit is blocked by smoke or fire, stay in your apartment and seal all vents and cracks around the door with duct tape or wet sheets and towels. Telephone the fire department and let them know where you are. If smoke is entering your apartment, stay low to the ground. If you have a balcony, signal your location by waving light-coloured fabric and wait on the balcony to be rescued.

Remember!

• Plan two ways out of every room
• Hold a fire drill twice a year
• Never go back inside a burning building for any reason!

What is Carbon Monoxide?

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colourless, odourless, tasteless and toxic gas and is often referred to as the "silent killer". When inhaled it inhibits the blood's capacity to transport oxygen throughout the body. It can poison the body quickly in high concentrations, or slowly over long periods of time.

What are the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning?

Exposure to CO can cause flu-like symptoms such as headaches, nausea, dizziness, burning eyes, confusion, drowsiness or loss of consciousness. In severe case, CO poisoning can cause brain dammage and death. The elderly, children and people with heart or respiratory conditions may be particularly sensitive to CO.

How is carbon monoxide generated in the home?

Carbon monoxide is a by-product of incomplete combustion of fuels such as natural gas, propane, heating oil, kerosene, coal, charcoal, gasoline or wood. This incomplete combustion can occur in any device that depends on burning for energy or heat, such as furnaces, room heaters, fireplaces, hot water heaters, stoves or grills and any gas-powered vehicle or engine. Automobiles left running in attached garages, gas barbecues operated inside the house, grills or kerosene heaters that are not properly vented, or chimneys or vents that are dirty or plugged may create unsafe levels of CO.

When properly installed, maintained and vented, any CO produced by these devices will not stay inside the home.

What are some danger signs?

• You or other members of your family have symptoms of CO exposure (see above).
• You notice a sharp, penetrating odour or smell of gas when your furnace or other fuel-burning equipment turns on.
• The air is stale or stuffy.
• The pilot light of your furnace or other fuel-burning equipment goes out.
• Chalky white powder forms on the chimney/exhaust vent pipe or soot build-up occurs around the exhaust vent.

How can unsafe levels of carbon monoxide be detected?

Carbon monoxide alarms monitor airborne concentration levels (parts per million) of carbon monoxide and sound an audible alarm when harmful CO levels are present.

Be sure that your alarm has been certified to the Canadian Standards Association CAN/CGA 6.19 standard or the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) 2034 standard.

If you suspect carbon monoxide in your home....

If you or anyone in your home is experiencing the symptoms of CO poisoning, ensure that everyone leaves the home immediately, leaving the door open. Call your local fire department or 911 from a neghbour's telephone. If your CO alarm sounds, do NOT assume it to be a false alarm. Open all doors and windows to ventilate the home. If you cannot find the problem and the alarm continues, contact the fire department. If there is a strong smell of natural gas in your home, evacutate immediately, leaving the door open, and contact your local gas utility.

If no symptoms are experienced, reset the alarm and check to see if it activates. If the alarm sounds a second time, call the local fire department for their assistance.

If the alarm does not sound a second time, check for common conditions that may have caused a CO build-up or contact a qualified heating contractor to check your fuel-burning equipment.
 

Where should a CO alarm be located in the home?

Proper placement of a CO alarm is important. In general, the human body is most vulnerable to the effects of CO during sleeping hours, so an alarm should be located in or as near as possible to the sleeping area of the home.

If only one alrm is being installed, it should be located near the sleeping area, where it can wake you if you are asleep.

Where sleeping areas are located in separate parts of the home, an alarm should be provided for each area.

Additional CO alarms should be placed on each level of a residence and in other rooms where combustion devices are located (such as in a room that contains a solid fuel-fired appliance, gas clothes dryer or natural gas furnace), or adjacent to potential sources of CO (such as in a teenager's room or granny suite located adjacent to an attached garage).

Unlike smoke, which rised to the ceiling, CO mixes with air. Recognizing this, a CO alarm should be located at knee-height (which is about the same as prone sleeping height). Due to the possibility of tampering or damage by pets, children, vacuum cleaners and the like, it may be located up to chest height. To work properly, a CO alarm should not be blocked by furniture, draperies or other obstructions to normal air flow.

If a combination smoke/carbon monoxide alarm is used, it should be located on the ceiling, to ensure that it will detect smoke effectively.

Always refer to the manufacturer's instructions for additional information regarding proper installations, use and maintenance. 

To keep safe, please remember:

• You have a responsibility to know about the dangers of carbon monoxide. Your knowledge and actions may save lives.
• CO alarms are a good second line of defence, but do not eliminate the need for regular inspection, maintenance and safe use of fuel-burning equipment.
• Take the time to learn about the use of CO alarms in your home to ensure you are using this equipment properly and effectively.