This is the law in Ontario. The fine is $360 per missing alarm or up to a $50,000 fine for an individual or a $100,000 fine for a corporation. If you require assistance contact us at fireprevention@cityofkingston.ca or 613-548-4001, ext. 5123.
It’s important to test the alarms monthly to ensure they will work when needed. Change the battery when you change your clocks for daylight savings time.
Smoke and carbon monoxide sensors wear out. Even though pressing the test button may cause the alarm to sound it may not work if the sensor is worn out.
Many fires occur at night when occupants are sleeping. Having a plan is especially important to survive a fire.
Ensure your house civic address or apartment door number is visible, not obstructed and ideally, illuminated at night. In an emergency precious time can be wasted trying to locate your residence.
Unattended cooking is our number one cause of residential fires!
Fires often occur at night when ashtrays have been dumped into garbage cans. Ensure butts are completely out.
Consider battery-operated candles as an alternative.
It’s very important to maintain 1 meter of clearance from combustibles. It's ideal to purchase heaters that have an automatic shut-off feature if the heater is tipped over.
Sparks from a crackling wood can cause fires. Consider getting glass doors on the fireplace to reduce sparks and increase the fireplace efficiency.
It’s important that hot ashes are not left in uncovered metal pails outside as the wind can blow embers into contact with combustible surfaces.
If you need extra power outlets, speak to an electrician about having them installed. It is unsafe to connect a power bar to another power bar as it could overload the first power bar, causing overheating and leading to a fire.
Overloaded machines can cause the belt to catch fire.
A lot of dryer fires are caused by the machine being full of lint and overheating. The pipe running between the dryer and exterior vent should also be free of lint build-up.