#ExtinguishersForCindy campaign to receive 1,000 Fire Extinguishers from London, Ont. company

Ten more seconds, is all they believe they needed.

When Cindy Devine’s car caught fire on Oct 2, 2020, none of those who stopped to help on Highbury Avenue south of London, Ont. had a fire extinguisher in their car.

Devine’s sister Christine Rozon believes an extinguisher may have bought enough time for first responders to arrive.

“Nobody should ever watch what I saw,” says Bob Reid, who was one of the first civilians on scene, and tried to help remove a pinned Devine from her car which a short time later went up in flames.

“I don't want that to happen to any family ever, so put a fire extinguisher in your car,” says Reid.

Reid is advocating along with St. Thomas native Tony Bendel to make it mandatory for all vehicles to come equipped with a mounted extinguisher.

While they wait for #CindysLaw to be official, their local campaign #ExtinguishersForCindy pushes forward.

“I got a phone call from a company in London, and they have approximately 1000 fire extinguishers that he said they want to find a home for,” says Bendel, who was friends with Devine.

“They heard about our campaign and he thought this is this is where they need to be.”

#ExtinguishersForCindy has given out 900 fire extinguishers, and raised about $32,000.

This one donation will double their work to date.

“This is a huge donation,” says Bendel.

“That’s 1,000 extinguishers, roughly $40 apiece, so $40,000. That brings our total to almost $72,000 that we've raised for this campaign.”

Local politicians have been championing Cindy’s Law, but with MPP Jeff Yurek stepping away from office, Bendel says he’ll have to wait until after the June Provincial Election and re-engage talks with the new MPP for Elgin-Middlesex-London.

“I'm just hoping that the Ministry of Transportation gets involved in this because this is this could be avoided,” says Reid.

“The Fire Marshal told me that it can't put out a fire in a car that size with the fire extinguisher, but when it first started, it was small. It was under the hood, and if I had a fire extinguisher - I don't know, at least I could try.”

Rozon says her family is appreciative of Reid’s efforts to save Cindy, but wished #CindysLaw was in place two years ago.

“Bob could have reached for his extinguisher, or my sister's extinguisher that was in her vehicle and hopefully put out the fire,” says Rozon.

“Even 10 seconds more so that emergency personnel could get there and properly extract her from the vehicle. She could be alive today.”