Coming Inside Your Home: Fire Inspectors To Check On Your Smoke Alarms
Posted March 9, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
You probably already know about the law in Ontario that mandates a working smoke detector on every floor of your home. But now Toronto Fire Services is going to make sure your home is protected by launching an inspection program to guarantee your detectors work – and that they’re located where they’re supposed to be.
Sometime starting over the next two weeks, they’ll be going door-to-door in Toronto, entering your house to check on your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. They’ll also be advising you about forming an escape plan before the worst happens.
“Project Zero is the first program of its kind in the City of Toronto,” relates Chief Bill Stewart in a statement. “No one should die in a home fire.”
The experts want to not only make sure your early warning device is working, but that you know what to expect when it goes off.
“With your smoke alarm you can test the power and the horn by pushing the button and you count to five,” explains Toronto Fire’s Samantha Hoffman. “Before you get to five, you need to hear it.”
She believes you can’t be too careful and lives by that credo. “I have 16 in my house,” she reveals. “Every bedroom, my hallway has two … I have small children, I want them safe and they need more time and smoke alarms buy you time.”
The most important places to put them: near every bedroom in a home, because if you’re sleeping you have to be able to wake up in time.
What if you’re not home when they call? You’ll get a friendly card asking you to contact them at your convenience for a time when the inspection can be done.
What if you don’t call back? A spokesman tells CityNews.ca that under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, officials are allowed to come into your home and check the safety measure. And they don’t intend to miss anyone.
Under an act that went into effect March 1, 2006, all Ontario residents are required to have one of the working devices on every level of their homes or face a $235 fine. But the department isn’t out to see you get dinged.
If they find a detector that doesn’t work or isn’t there, they’ll temporarily install one for you and give you seven days to put up one of your own. Or you can buy that ‘temporary’ lifesaver from them on the spot.
The first inspections will begin in area bounded by Dovercourt Road and Jefferson Avenue to the east, Bloor Street West to the north, Colborne Lodge Road to the west, and Lake Shore Boulevard to the south. Those neighbourhoods were picked because they had 17 fire deaths in 2008 – the most in the city last year.
The teams of inspectors will carry full I.D. to ensure you know who’s coming into your house.
Every smoke detector is different, but just installing new batteries doesn’t ensure compliance. Most have a life span of just 10 years and need to be replaced after that.
To find out what to look for when buying a new one, click here.
Find more on planning a fire escape route.
Source: Toronto Fire Services and Ontario Fire Marshal
