A group of Girl Guides from Ingersoll, Ont. is crediting a working carbon monoxide detector in the lodge where they were staying over the weekend with keeping them alive.
Amy Boddy tells CTV News four adults and nine girls aged 9-11 checked in to Camp Shegardaynou near Princeton, Ont. on Friday evening.
Around 9 a.m. on Saturday the CO detector sounded and the girls all vacated the building, gathering at an emergency meeting area.
She says none of the girls showed any symptoms of exposure and firefighters from the Blandford-Blenheim station were on scene within minutes.
Firefighters found high levels of carbon monoxide inside the lodge and were able to trace it back to a faulty pilot light on a gas stove and a closed damper on one of two wood stoves.
Boddy says they were very fortunate and the group actually enjoyed sitting in the fire trucks to keep warm and learning about all the equipment as firefighters spent two hours on scene.
The group was able to continue their camping trip, though firefighters returned to the site two more times to check levels and ensure everyone was safe.
“They were absolutely amazing for us,” Boddy said in an email to CTV News.
While they tested the detectors on their arrival at the camp, she believes “without it having been there, I am confident we would not have survived the weekend.”
Boddy hopes the story will encourage support for the Hawkins Gignac Act, a bill that would make CO detectors mandatory in most Ontario homes.
The act was inspired by the death of OPP Const. Laurie Hawkins, her husband and their two children due to carbon monoxide poisoning at their Woodstock home.
