Toronto Fire Services says an Etobicoke father is facing charges after his family was hospitalized last week for carbon monoxide poisoning.
Fire crews were called to a home on West Wareside Road, near Renforth Drive and Rathburn Road, in the early morning hours of Nov. 25 after a member of the household called 9-1-1 and told emergency officials that they were having trouble staying conscious.
Capt. Ron Jones previoulsy said when firefighters first arrived at the home, no one responded to their knocks. Finally, officials say a woman stumbled to the door before collapsing on the ground.
Fire crews located a male and a two-year-old child upstairs and both were in and out of consciousness.
All three were taken to hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning and are expected to make a full recovery.
While rescuing the child, one of the firefighters suffered carbon monoxide exposure and required hospitalization.
Toronto police previously said that the homeowner disabled the CO detector one week prior because it was repeatedly going off and they believed it to be defective.
“It is against the law to disable them. In these types of situations… a message needs to be sent to the public,” Deputy Fire Chief Jim Jessop told CP24.com Tuesday morning.
“Carbon monoxide legislation was enacted to save lives… we could have had three fatalities with this.”
In Ontario, all homes are legally required to have working carbon monoxide detectors.
Jessop said that firefighters have received 1200 calls for possible carbon monoxide exposure over the past three years in Toronto and 84 people have required medical treatment.
“Toronto Fire Service will be treating carbon monoxide violations like they do smoke alarm violations. There will be zero tolerance for these types of calls,” he added.
The maximum penalty for disabling a CO detector is $50,000 and/or one year in jail.
Jessop said that if a CO alarm goes off, residents can call Toronto Fire Services to come and check the readings inside the home.
Anyone whose alarm is buzzing and is feeling flu-like symptoms should call 9-1-1 immediately, Jessop added.
