Photo by Vince Fedoroff
MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICE – Gary Burgess, right, looks over the selection of carbon monoxide (CO) detectors with the assistance of Canadian Tire employee Doug Muir this morning. After a family of four and a male boarder died in a tragic incident in a Porter Creek home likely due to the gas, CO detectors sold out.
Stores around the city quickly sold out of carbon monoxide detectors following last week's deaths of five people in Porter Creek.
Stores around the city quickly sold out of carbon monoxide detectors following last week's deaths of five people in Porter Creek.
Both Canadian Tire and Home Hardware placed orders for emergency shipments of the alarms Monday after news broke of the deaths and the alarms began flying off the shelves.
Though blood tests are currently being conducted in Vancouver, the deadly gas is likely to blame for the deaths of Bradley Rusk, 45, his wife Valerie, 37, and their children, 13-year-old Gabriel and 11-year-old Rebakah, as well as friend and boarder Donald McNamee, 47.
Daniel Charlebois, Canadian Tire's owner-operator, told the Star this morning that normally orders take about 12 days to make it from Toronto to Whitehorse. The emergency shipment was slated to arrive this afternoon.
Before the boxes were even completely unpacked, the alarms were being rung up at the registers.
The store also placed regular orders on Tuesday and again this morning. In total, the three orders will include about 400 alarms.
The dectectors range in price from $36 to $66, Charlebois said.
Rob Champaign, Home Hardware's manager, said about 60 alarms are expected to arrive in Whitehorse today or tomorrow, with more arriving Sunday as part of a regular order.
Both Charlebois and Champaign agree the alarms have become more popular over the last few years.
"It used to be a bit of an anomaly,” Champaign said. "Now they are much more common.”
Charlebois estimates his store sells about 1,000 alarms a year.
Whitehorse fire chief Clive Sparks encourages people to read the information that comes with their new alarm before they decide where to place them.
Detectors come in a variety of styles — some combined with smoke detectors and other alarms — and may work best in different locations, he said.
Since 2005, Canada's National Building Code has required that carbon monoxide detectors to be in new homes, where they are audible in all bedrooms even with the door closed.
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