Barrie Fire and Emergency Service received a donation of more than 100 carbon monoxide alarms Friday morning from the Insurance Bureau of Canada.
Chief Bill Boyes was joined by MPP Ann Hoggarth and Matt Hiraishi of the Insurance Bureau of Canada at fire HQ where the fire service accepted the life-saving devices on behalf of Barrie residents.
"It's very important with the long weekend that's coming," said Chief Boyes. "People are heading to cottages and trailers and sometimes people may forget that it is a home and we do have to have this detection. People need to be aware of the dangers of not having one."
"There are 50 people every year in Canada that die needlessly from this terrible gas and we want to make sure nobody dies," said MPP Ann Hoggarth, who facilitated the donation. "We think it's very important on this holiday weekend to make people aware that they need to have them in their cottages too."
The donation is part of a campaign to raise awareness about the deadly gas and the law that requires people to have detectors.
"To date we've been in over 60 communities and donated over 6,000 alarms," said Matt Hiraishi of the IBC.
The province unanimously passed Bill 77 - The Hawkins Gignac Act in 2013, making carbon monoxide detectors mandatory in all homes heated by fossil fuels or that have an attached garage.
The legislation was named in honour of OPP officer Laurie Hawkins, her husband Richard and their two children who died as a result of CO poisoning in 2008.
Their home did not have a CO detector.
The Barrie Fire Service plans to give out the detectors during an awareness week in early fall before heating season.
