Fire safety will be on display during a public open house at the West End Community Centre on Saturday.
Put on by the Guelph Fire Department for Fire Prevention Day, in partnership with Guelph-Eramosa Fire Rescue, the event will provide safety lessons and live demonstrations, along with the inflatable fire safety house and mascot Sparky the fire safety dog.
It runs from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Imperial Road facility.
The theme for this year’s fire prevention week, which runs Oct. 6 to 12, is ‘Smoke Alarms – Make Them Work For You! Install, Test, Replace.’
In turn, local firefighters remind residents to:
- ensure a working smoke alarm is installed on every level of the home and test it at least once a month;
- test the alarm by pressing the button to hear if the alarm is functional;
- replace outdated alarms; most alarms have a 10-year lifespan;
- and have a home fire escape plan and practice it regularly.
There were 121 fire fatalities throughout the province last year, according to the Ontario Fire Marshal’s office.
So far this year, Guelph has seen several fatal house fires without working smoke alarms.
