Fire Safety in the Home

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Smoke Detectors Smoke detectors have saved many lives, and may save yours. More than 50 percent of fatal residential fires take place at night when people are sleeping. If a fire starts while your family is asleep, smoke detectors will wake you up. They can make the difference between life and death in a fire emergency. Position smoke detectors on the ceiling just outside each bedroom. If you have a multi-level home, install a detector on every level. If you sleep with your bedroom door closed, place an additional detector inside your bedroom. Before you buy a smoke detector, make sure it is listed and approved by the Underwriters Lab of Canada (ULC). Read the instructions enclosed with your smoke detector carefully to find out exactly how and where to install it. There are two types of home smoke detectors available; the ion type and the photoelectric type. The ion type reacts faster to open flaming fires and is usually the least expensive. The photoelectric type reacts faster to smoldering fires and is less likely to react to cooking. Both types provide good protection and can be used without worry. If you need more than one detector, you might get one of each. Be sure to test your smoke detector each month and change its batteries at least twice a year. A good habit to follow is to change the batteries in your smoke detector in the spring and fall when you change your clocks. Install smoke detectors outside each bedroom and on every level of your home. Test detectors monthly and change batteries at least twice a year. Mount fire extinguishers in easy-to-find places. Make sure that each member of your family can hold and operate your fire extinguishers.

What are symptoms of Carbon Monoxide poisoning?
Exposure to CO can cause flu-like symptoms such as headaches, nausea, dizziness, burning eyes, confusion, drowsiness and even loss of consciousness, In severe cases, CO poisoning can cause brain damage and death. The elderly, children and people with heart or respiratory conditions may be particularly sensitive to CO.

How is Carbon Monoxide generated in the home?
Carbon monoxide is a by-product of incomplete combustion of fuel such as natural gas, propane, heating oil, kerosene, coal, charcoal, gasoline or wood. This incomplete combustion can occur in any device that depends on burning for energy or heat, such as furnaces, room heaters, fireplaces, hot water heaters, stoves or grills and any gas powered vehicle or engine. Automobiles left running in attached garages, gas barbecues operated inside the house, grills or kerosene heaters that are not properly vented, or chimneys or vents that are dirty or plugged may create unsafe levels of CO. When properly installed, maintained and vented, any CO produced by these devices will not stay inside the home.

What are some danger signs?

• You or other members of your family have symptoms of CO exposure (see above).
• You notice a sharp, penetrating odour or smell of gas when your furnace or other fuel-burning equipment turns on.
• The air is stale or stuffy.
• The pilot light of your furnace or other fuel-burning equipment goes out.
• Chalky white powder forms on the chimney/exhaust vent pipe or soot build-up occurs around the exhaust vent.

How can unsafe levels of carbon monoxide he detected?
Carbon monoxide detectors monitor airborne concentration levels (parts per million) of carbon monoxide and sound an audible alarm when harmful CO levels are present. Be sure that your detector has been certified to the Canadian Standards Association CAN/CGA 6.19 standard or the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) 2034 standard.

If you or anyone else in your home is experiencing the symptoms of CO poisoning, ensure that everyone leaves the home immediately, leaving the door open. Call your local fire department or 911 from a neighbours telephone.

If your CO detector sounds do NOT assume it to be a false alarm. Open all doors and windows to ventilate the home. If you cannot find the problem and the alarm continues, contact the fire department. If there is a strong smell of natural gas in your home, evacuate immediately, leaving the door open, and contact the local fire department. If no symptoms are experienced, reset the detector and check to see if the alarm activates. If the detector sounds a second time, call the local fire department for their assistance. If the detector does not sound a second time, check for common conditions that may have caused a CO build-up or contact a qualified heating contractor to check your fuel-burning equipment.

Where should a carbon monoxide detector be located in the home?
Proper placement of a CO detector is important. In general, the human body is most vulnerable to the effects of CO during sleeping hours, so a detector should be located in or as near as possible to the sleeping area of the home. If only one detector is being installed, it should be located near the sleeping area, where it can wake you if you are asleep. Where sleeping areas are located in separate parts of the home, a detector should be provided for each area. Additional CO detectors should be placed on each level of a residence and in other rooms where combustion devices are located (such as in a room that contains a solid fuel-fired appliance, gas clothes dryer or natural gas furnace), or adjacent to potential sources of CO (such as in a teenager's room or granny suite located adjacent to an attached garage). Unlike smoke, which rises to the ceiling, CO mixes with air. Recognizing this, a CO detector should be located at knee-height (which is about the same as prone sleeping height). Due to the possibility of tampering or damage by pets, children, vacuum cleaners and the like, it may be located up to chest height. To work properly, a detector should not be blocked by furniture, draperies or other obstructions to normal air flow. If a combination smoke/carbon monoxide detector is used, it should be located on the ceiling, to ensure that it will detect smoke effectively.

Be sure the fire extinguisher is listed and approved by the Underwriters Lab of Canada (ULC). Extinguishers are identified by the type of fire on which they can be used:

• A - wood or cloth fires
• B - flammable liquid fires
• C - electrical fires
• D - flammable metal fires

Smoke is your enemy! Even a few breaths of smoke and toxic gases can choke and kill you. If you become trapped in smoke, crawl low and keep your head down. Smoke and heat rise, so cleaner air is near the floor.

Here are the steps you should take to plan your escape:

• Draw a floor plan of your home and mark all possible escape routes. Make sure you know two safe ways out of every room, especially the bedrooms.
• Remember that young, elderly and disabled persons may need assistance. Their rooms should be located as close to an exit as possible. Train the rest of your family to help them get out in an emergency.
• Remind everyone to close doors behind them as they evacuate the house to slow down the spread of fire, smoke and heat.
• Decide on an outside meeting place to assemble your family and to make sure everyone is out.
• Practice your escape! Conduct home fire drills often, varying the drill to prepare for different fire situations. You may be blinded by smoke, so try practicing your escape plan in the dark or with your eyes closed.

• Before you exit your room, feel the door. If it is hot, don't open it. Use your second way out.
• If smoke, heat or flames block both of your escape routes, stay in the room with the door closed.
• Stuff sheets, blankets or towels in cracks around the door and around heating and air conditioning vents to keep smoke and fumes out.
• Open a window as long as no smoke is entering the room. Hang a bright sheet or cloth out the window to signal for help.
• If there is a phone in the room, dial 9-1-1 and tell the emergency dispatcher where you are.
• If you clothes catch fire: STOP, DROP AND ROLL!

Draw a floor plan of your home and mark all possible escape routes. Be sure you know two safe ways out of every room, especially bedrooms.

Practice your escape. Conduct home fire drills often and vary the drill to prepare for different emergency situations.

If your clothes catch fire: STOP, DROP and ROLL!

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