Fire Safety

When it comes to fire safety the last thing you want to be is legal. Legal kills. The Titanic was legal when it sank with not enough lifeboats for all taking about 1500 to their death. People died without smoke and carbon monoxide detectors before they became mandatory. So you want to be more than legal. You want to be safe.

Under Ontario’s fire code smoke alarms are required outside all sleeping areas and on each other floor. Carbon monoxide detectors are required near all sleeping areas in residences with fuel-burning appliances. That’s all that is legal for owners of private residences.

Here’s what you probably should do. For starters aim for two or more smoke alarms per floor. The reason behind this is it provides more warning time that may save your life and your home. For example let’s take the basement. If your smoke alarm is at the foot of the stairs and a fire breaks out in the laundry room it takes precious seconds, maybe even a minute or more, depending on the circumstances, for it to be detected. By having a smoke alarm in the laundry as well as other places in the basement you get more warning.

The same goes for having one working carbon monoxide detector on each floor. Again the principle behind this is more warning whether asleep or during the day. The earlier the warning the better the outcome.

Here’s an excellent page on smoke alarms from the French River Fire Department: http://www.frfd.ca/smoke-alarms.html  and here’s a link to Ontario’s Carbon Monoxide Alarm Questions And Answers:  http://www.mcscs.jus.gov.on.ca/english/FireMarshal/CarbonMonoxideAlarms/QuestionsandAnswers/OFM_COAlarms_QandA.html

Other things to consider, which aren’t legally required, but advisable:  Get a general purpose extinguisher for each floor, plus a separate one able to put out typical kitchen fires. My cousin was able to put out a small fire in his kitchen because he had one. Get an escape ladder for upper floors. When building a new house or retrofitting an old one consider adding a sprinkler system. This will put out fires quickly once they start. A fire escape plan is also very useful as well as fire drills, especially with children.

The best fire safety device is prevention. If you smoke quit. Don’t leave cooking or candles unattended. Regularly maintain your furnace and other fuel burning devices. Keep combustibles away from heaters, stoves, toaster ovens and the like. Don’t overload electrical circuits and maintain your wiring. Wiring usually wears at plugs, light switches and light fixtures. Check them every few years to make sure the coating hasn’t worn. Dispose of ashes from fire places and barbecues in metal containers after dosing them thoroughly with water. This is not a definitive list, but it is a good start. Finally if something doesn’t seem right fix it. The life you save may be your own.