Port Colborne fire service receives donation toward smoke alarm campaign

Continued efforts of Port Colborne Fire and Emergency Services to reduce fatal fires by ensuring the public has working smoke alarms were highlighted for Port Colborne city council on Monday night.

Discussion included a donation from Enbridge Gas Distribution and the Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council, as well as updates from fire Chief Tom Cartwright.

Steve Miller, field supervisor of asset renewal and improvement with Enbridge, announced a $100,000 donation toward Project Zero, which is a campaign by Enbridge and the Fire Marshal’s safety council that provides combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarms to Ontario municipalities, including Port Colborne.

Gary Laframboise was there on behalf of the safety council. He said Port Colborne is recipient of 186 of those alarms, valued at more than $11,000.

“Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are critical life-saving devices for everyone,” Laframboise said.

Project Zero began in 2009 and has received $800,000 in donations from Enbridge since that time, equating to more than 27,000 alarms in 85 Ontario communities.

Cartwright thanked Enbridge and the safety council for their support.

“We’re going to move forward with this as best we can,” he said of the efforts to make sure every Port Colborne resident has working alarms.

Cartwright said the fire department has visited 921 homes since March and installed nearly 1,000 alarms. The department is still only seeing a 33 per cent compliance rate from residents. He said a number of charges are pending against landlords.

He said oftentimes residents have told the department they were waiting for someone to show up during its door-to-door program rounds. In those homes, he said, the department is finding residents don’t have working alarms. Cartwright cautioned against this, telling residents to call the department and have someone come out to install new alarms before something happens.

He also cautioned against people who are going door-to-door offering free home inspections. He said he’s gotten word of people posing as inspectors and being very forceful about getting into people’s homes. It’s unclear at present what these people want, he said, but they are not with the department.

Cartwright reminds residents members of the fire department will always come in uniform, clearly identify themselves and have a fire vehicle.

During October, the department will be continuing its door-to-door program, but offering the alarms for free to people who need them. He stressed that this is for Port Colborne residents only because people from other municipalities have been in contact to see about getting alarms.

Another avenue the department is exploring to increase the compliance rate is speaking with insurance companies. Cartwright’s suggestion is that insurance companies should decline to cover loss due to fire if a home in question did not have working smoke alarms.

At present, he said there is limited ability to enforce smoke and carbon monoxide alarm laws, so exploring other options is necessary.