It’s been a busy week for the Guelph Fire Department with four fires in as many days, and three of them in a nearly 24-hour period at the beginning of the week. With the community concerned, Guelph Fire Chief Brian Arnold was joined by Ontario Fire Marshal Jon Pegg at the site of a fatal fire on Edinburgh Road South with a simple message: For your personal safety, and the safety of the people you live with, have a working smoke detector.

“I can confirm that our investigation has shown that there were no working smoke alarms in this residence that ultimately claimed the lives of two individuals,” Pegg explained. “My plea to everyone here today is please check your smoke alarms. Take the five minutes that it takes to check your entire house, make sure that you have working smoke alarms.”

“Please please please let this be the last day that your your home is unprotected for fire. Please take action immediately. Don’t vote one more night, having working smoke working smoke alarms,” he added emphatically.

Pegg noted that in 2022 there were 133 fatalities from fire in Ontario, and those trends are not reversing themselves if what’s happened so far in 2024 is any indication. Further hitting the point home, Arnold revealed that follow-up with the neighbours through the townhouse complex where the fatal fire occurred showed that a number of units did not have working smoke detectors either.

“We have provided, and even installed, many alarms for those units just to ensure that they are protected,” Arnold explained. “Guelph Fire will also be returning to our ‘Home Safe Home’ smoke alarm program this spring. We will be going door-to-door in neighbourhoods where the data shows the highest need. We’ll be having conversations, answering your questions about fire safety, and asking you to show us and test your smoke alarms. Please, invite us in.”

“We can look up at our ceilings, see a smoke alarm, and we think, ‘Okay, I’m protected,’ but we often forget that these smoke alarms have a shelf life, they have a lifespan. You can check with the manufacturer’s instructions, but typically we’re telling people that these things need to be replaced every 10 years,” Arnold added.

Appreciating that there’s a cost of living crisis, Pegg urged the community to not let cost be an impediment to making sure that your home is protected. “My plea is don’t let cost of living and lack of funds be the reason you don’t have working smoke alarms. There are programs right across this province to help, and although you can spend hundreds of dollars on very technologically advanced smoke alarms, you can also spend $10. So call your local fire department, we want to make sure you’re protected and we will help.”

As for the fatal fire on Edinburgh Road, there were workers clearing the building and Pegg said that the on-site phase of the investigation is done and has now moved to the Fire Marshal’s office in Toronto. No conclusions have yet been reached, and there’s no word about potential charges, but in the interest of calming the community, the fire chief did have one thing to say.

“The origin cause and circumstances of the fire have not been determined at this point. There’s nothing that’s telling us it’s suspicious at this point in time,” he said.

You can watch the full media availability below: