CO Detector Saved Local Family

A Windsor Star article cites The Tecumseh Fire Rescue Service as crediting a carbon monoxide detector for saving a local family from tragedy.

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Tecumseh Fire Chief Doug Pitre calls Carbon Monoxide the “silent killer.” He says that Carbon Monoxide makes you  feel nauseated or sluggish. “Some people attribute that to the flu,” Pitre said in the article. “You go to bed. And if it’s a large amount of CO in the house — you don’t wake up.”

Pitre and a deputy chief responded to a 911 call on the 1200 block of Shawnee Road where a married couple with a four-month-old infant son lived. According to the report, the mother was already feeling like she had a headache when the home’s CO detector sounded an alarm.

With her husband at work, she took herself and her child and to her parents’ place, while he came home to meet emergency responders

Her husband — who had been at work — went to the address and waited outside to speak with emergency responders. That’s when Chief Pitre said they found a high reading at the home.

Union Gas was contacted, and brought more sophisticated detection equipment. After a full search of the home, it was discovered that there was a “faulty connection” in the home’s furnace.

The furnace was shut off, scheduled for repair and the mother and child sent to a medical clinic.

Carbon Monoxide poisoning has been in the forefront of the local news recently after the death of an Amherstburg teenager earlier this month.

The Tecumseh Fire Chief told the Star he deals with 50 to 60 calls about carbon monoxide per year. About eight of those calls turn out to involve a potentially harmful level of CO.

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It is now the law in Ontario for homes with gas burning appliances or attached garages to be equipped with a CO detector, as well as a smoke detector on every floor.  To ensure your home is compliant with the law, call 1-800-265-5317, or JUST CLICK HERE.

Here’s the link to the Windsor Star article.

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