The Ontario Fire Marshal says 2022 was the worst year for fire-related fatalities in over two decades.
There were 133 lives lost to fires across the province last year. That included 31 deaths over the final three months of 2022.
It was the highest number of fatalities recorded in over 20 years, and marks a troubling trend upward for Ontario, where there were 124 deaths in 2021, 115 in 2020 and 72 in 2019.
Kincardine fire chief Brad Lemaich says despite constantly reminding people to install and maintain smoke detectors, the message just isn’t sinking in.
“We get frustrated. We’re continually in homes where we find either no smoke alarms or not working smoke alarms,” he says. “People just don’t seem to make it a priority and those devices are proven life-savers.”
“They’re relatively inexpensive. You can buy a battery-powered smoke alarm for about the same price as you’d pay for a hamburger combo at any fast food restaurant, yet we continue to find homes where those precautions haven’t been put in place.”
To learn more about how to fire-proof your home, visit ontario.ca/page/fire-safety-home
