Ontario’s Fire Marshall has revealed that the province saw the highest number of fire-related deaths in more than 20 years, capping at 133 deaths in 2022.
Kincardine’s Fire Chief Brad Lemaich finds this statistic “extremely alarming." “I think potentially we see a feeling of complacency or the mindset of ‘this won’t happen to me.' Yet, we see time and time again that it does happen and unfortunately we still have people losing their lives in situations that are preventable,” said Lemaich.
Lemaich said the best thing you can do to prevent that number from rising is ensuring you have working smoke alarms in your home.
“A smoke alarm can give you the warning that allows you to get out in those very few minutes that you have available to you. We get frustrated that we are continually in homes where we find either no smoke alarms, or not working smoke alarms, or outdated smoke alarms,” he added. “People must have a smoke alarm on every level of their home and outside of sleeping areas. For maintenance, most of them are good for about 10 years and then they need to be replaced. If it's primarily battery powered, make sure you replace those batteries. We recommend twice a year.”
For more on fire prevention safety, head to the Kincardine and Emergency Services website.