Check carbon monoxide detectors regularly: Saskatoon Fire Department

With extreme cold warnings across the province continuing and many people turning up the heat in their homes, Saskatoon Fire Department Assistant Chief Yvonne Raymer is urging everyone to make sure any carbon monoxide (CO) detectors they have are working properly.

“Any level of carbon monoxide is not a good level,” said Raymer. “It could be appliances, it could be that you’re running your vehicle in your garage that’s attached to your home.

“Don’t forget to test (detectors) … just to ensure that they are functioning as they were designed to do. And also look at the dates of manufacturer’s replacement.”

On Tuesday, fire crews were called to a home after the resident’s carbon monoxide detectors started ringing.

“They had 100 parts per million of carbon monoxide identified in their home,” said Raymer. “We called out SaskEnergy, who came and identified the source was a concern with the furnace … If they hadn’t had those alarms, they wouldn’t have woken up at 4 a.m. to realize that they had a problem.”

Raymer says several similar situations have already occurred this year, calling them “near misses.”

“Last year, we had more fatalities from carbon monoxide than we did with fires,” she added.

On Jan. 15, 50 people were evacuated from two apartment buildings on Bateman Crescent after carbon monoxide levels shot up. When fire crews arrived at one building, CO detectors found initial levels of 350 parts per million (ppm), and later 412 ppm in one boiler room.

Dozens of people were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning at the time.

After that incident, the province passed legislation requiring that all residential buildings including homes, condos, apartment buildings, care homes and hotels/motels have working CO monitors.

They must be installed by July 1, 2022.