Journal staff
This week, officials with the Township of Warwick Fire & Rescue announced a partnership with Enbridge Gas to improve home safety and bring fire and carbon-monoxide deaths down to zero.
The Township of Warwick Fire & Rescue will receive combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarms through Safe Community Project Zero — a public education campaign with the Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council (FMPFSC) that will provide more than 10,000 alarms to residents in 50 municipalities across Ontario.
“Warwick Fire & Rescue is thrilled to have been chosen as recipients of Project Zero,” said Watford Station fire chief Rick Sitlington. “In my time as chief, we have been fortunate that we have never had a death related to lack of smoke alarms or CO detectors and we’d like to keep it this way.
“The department will conduct door-to-door home safety checks throughout the month of October to ensure homes in the Township of Warwick have working smoke and CO detectors.”
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.
This year, Enbridge invested $315,000 in Safe Community Project Zero, and over the past 15 years, the program has provided more than 86,000 alarms to Ontario fire departments.
“Properly maintaining fuel burning equipment is the best way to reduce potential exposure to carbon monoxide, and an alarm is a critical second line of defence for protection,” said Robin Ellwood, operations supervisor for Enbridge Gas, Sarnia. “When we implement these strategies together, we protect our loved ones from cabin monoxide poisoning, also known as the silent killer.”