‘Carbon monoxide alarms saved my family’: P.A. resident, gov’t highlight CO safety

“It’s the silent killer. We were sleeping and could have just passed away. Thank goodness that detector went off. It literally saved our lives.”

Garth Kalin didn’t know his carbon monoxide detector was going off.

He thought the beeping that woke up him and his wife at 3 a.m., one winter morning in Prince Albert was because of the battery dying in their detector. Then they noticed a light flashing by the CO sign.

“I go, ‘Well, that’s carbon monoxide.’ So we did what everybody would probably do and we started sniffing. But it’s an odourless gas unlike natural gas or propane,” said Kalin.

Better to be safe than sorry, they called for help. The fire department and SaskEnergy showed up at their house and determined they had a defective furnace. The heat exchanger was cracked , allowing the gases to go into the house instead of up the chimney.

“When I asked how bad it was, they said probably within a couple of hours we wouldn’t have woken up — the levels were that high,” Kalin said.

Each year, emergency personnel respond to approximately 1,300 calls related to CO in Saskatchewan. Between 2015 and 2019, a total of 16 deaths were recorded due to CO poisoning.

The Government of Saskatchewan is recognizing this week as Carbon Monoxide Awareness Week to highlight the importance of CO safety and educate residents about prevention measures.

“Our government is working to reduce the number of carbon monoxide incidents in Saskatchewan, and the serious health issues that it can cause,” Minister Responsible for SaskEnergy Don Morgan said in a media release.

“Through CO awareness campaigns, simple prevention steps, and recent amendments to the Uniform Building and Accessibility Standards (UBAS) Regulations, we can prevent these deadly events.”

The UBAS Regulations will require carbon monoxide alarms and smoke alarms, or combination carbon monoxide-smoke alarms, to be installed in all residential buildings in Saskatchewan, regardless of the date the building was constructed.

Enforcement will not begin until July 1, 2022, so residents can have time to research, purchase and install the alarms.

“It is vital to have working CO alarms in your home to detect the poisonous gas and alert you to danger before physical symptoms appear,” said Jesse Abdai, the gas inspector with TSASK who reviewed the CO incident in Kalin’s home.

“You should also check vents around your house to make sure there is no debris or snow-ice buildup blocking ventilation. Regular maintenance of all gas-burning appliances can help prevent CO accumulation in your house as well.”

Without CO alarms, continued exposure to the gas can lead to confusion, drowsiness, loss of consciousness, brain damage and death.

Kalin encourages other homeowners to take CO safety seriously.

“Take time to go through some simple CO prevention steps to keep your home safe this winter,” he said.

By Teena Monteleone, paNOW