An apartment building owner and a tenant in Orillia are both facing charges after a carbon monoxide leak forced the evacuation of the building.
Fire crews in Orillia were tipped off that something wasn’tright at the apartment building on Wednesday afternoon.
When crews arrived at the building their carbon monoxide detectors registered CO levels that were far beyond safe.
“It reached much higher, very may well have caused a death,” said Fire Inspection Officer David Baker.
Luckily that didn’t happen. Three people were treated at the scene by paramedics and another personwas treated in hospital. Fire crews say they think a faulty boiler and furnace were the problem. But the bigger issue was that there were not enough CO alarms in place.
“One carbon monoxide detector in the home, it was underneath the kitchen sink so it wasn’t properly located outside sleeping areas,” said Orillia Fire Chief Ralph Dominelli.
Proper installation is one thing but knowing how to react is another.
“Anytime a carbon monoxide detector (alarm) makes a noise there’s a problem. It’s either a battery or it’s been disconnected or there’s carbon monoxide – you need to act,” says Baker. “When you hear a loud noise and a series of tones like ‘beep, beep, beep…beep, beep, beep’ that means there is carbon monoxide in the room and you have to take some sort of action.”
The owner of the property was charged with failing to install a CO alarm and a tenant in the building was charged for disabling a CO alarm. Carol Cook is the property owner and she sees this as a lesson learned is relieved her tenants are okay.
“There are a couple spots where the detectors were missing but like I say they were there,” says Cook. “Even when you think you’ve done everything right, these accidents can happen and it could have been so much worse.
The municipal by-law charges that were handed out each carry a fine of about $235.
