Thunder Bay, ON – November 1, 2013 – The Canadian Hearing Society (CHS) and Thunder Bay Fire Rescue (TBFR) today held a one-day Time Change Awareness Event at Intercity Shopping Centre to remind the community to change the batteries in smoke alarms when they change their clocks.
“Every time change is an opportunity to remind people to test their smoke alarms and put in new batteries,” said Anthony Stokaluk, Public Education Officer - TBFR. “Smoke alarms 10 years-of-age or older should be replaced. It is so important to have an early warning system in place to have more time to escape a fire. It is the law to have a working smoke alarm on every level of your home and outside all sleeping areas.”
The Time Change Event coincides with the end of Daylight Savings Time on Nov. 3. Over the years, North American Fire Departments have hosted time change campaigns to raise awareness of the importance of working smoke alarms. A working smoke alarm can save your life by giving you the early warning needed to escape a house fire. CHS and Thunder Bay Fire Rescue remind people that smoke alarms should be checked and tested every month.
“We want to remind people that they need to have working smoke alarms in their home in order to be alerted in case of a fire,” said Nancy Patterson, Regional Director, CHS Thunder Bay. “We also wanted to educate everyone about visual smoke alarms to alert people who are Deaf or hard of hearing.”
Visual smoke alarms incorporate a visual component, such as a strobe light, in addition to an audible alarm when smoke is detected in the home. Almost 25 per cent of adult Canadians have some hearing loss. This figure grows to 40 per cent for people over age 65.
This event supports CHS’ on-going advocacy efforts to educate everyone on the importance of visual smoke alarms. For more than 10 years, CHS has been working towards improved and equitable fire safety for residents who are culturally Deaf, oral deaf, deafened and hard of hearing.
On hand for the launch event were representatives from CHS, MPP for Thunder Bay-Atikokan Bill Mauro, City Councillor Iain Angus, Deputy Fire Chief Dave Paxton and Division Chief Marty Patterson along with other City Officials.
-30-
CHS Media Contact: Marie-Lauren Gregoire, 416-928-2500 ext 272 or mgregoire@chs.ca
Thunder Bay Fire Rescue Media Contact: Anthony Stokaluk, Public Education Officer, 807-625-2802 or 807-631-7033 or astokaluk@thunderbay.ca
About the Canadian Hearing Society
The Canadian Hearing Society (CHS) was incorporated in 1940 to provide services, products and information to culturally Deaf, oral deaf, deafened, and hard of hearing people and to educate the hearing public. CHS is governed by a board of directors, the majority of whom are deaf, deafened, or hard of hearing. The organization is funded by government, internal revenue generation including fundraising, and the United Way. For more information or to find your regional office, visit www.chs.ca