Officials at Windsor Fire and Rescue Services are stressing the need to have working smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors in your home.
On Thursday, the service received 432 combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarms through Safe Community Project Zero—a public education campaign with the Fire Marshal's Public Fire Safety Council—aimed at reducing the number of fire and carbon monoxide-related deaths.
The campaign will provide more than 14,500 alarms to residents in 75 communities across Ontario, including Windsor.
This year, Enbridge Gas invested $450,000 in Safe Community Project Zero, and over the past 16 years, the program has provided more than 101,000 alarms to Ontario fire departments.
Windsor Fire Chief Stephen Laforet says their goal is to work with our community partners to get out into homes and to find out where they are needed the most, like low-income families and seniors living alone.
Laforet says it's the law to have a working carbon monoxide alarm.
"Furnaces are coming back on now; people are using different appliances to heat, and we want to make sure people are only using heating appliances to heat," he says. "If you have any gas-fired appliance in your home or have an attached garage, you have to have a carbon monoxide detector."
Carbon monoxide is a by-product of the incomplete combustion of many types of common fuels.
Laforet says carbon monoxide basically robs your body of the ability to take in oxygen, so by the time you're symptomatic, it may be to late.
According to the Ontario Fire Marshal's Office, 88 per cent of all homes in Canada have something that can create a carbon monoxide threat.
In 2023, Ontario suffered 123 fire deaths, compared to 133 fire-related deaths during 2022, which was the highest figure in more than 20 years.
Windsor Fire and Rescue responded to 293 fires in 2023.
In Ontario, smoke alarms have been legally required to be installed on every storey and outside all sleeping areas since 2006.