Propane Safety Tips

• Never smoke while handling a propane cylinder.
• Never leave a propane cylinder in your car or truck.
• Never use matches or lighters to detect propane leaks.
• Never expose propane cylinders to high temperatures.
• Keep propane tanks upright. Never allow a tank to roll onto its side.
• Never attempt to cut a propane tank or cylinder, even if you think it is empty. Traces of remaining propane could cause an explosion.
• When you have a propane cylinder refilled, ask your supplier to look for any rust, dents, damage or leaks.
• Never dispose of a damaged propane tank or cylinder in the dumpster, it could cause an explosion.  Contact your propane supplier and city about disposal programs.
• Never allow any contractor or landscaper to bump your propane tank, this could cause a leak.

Natural Gas Safety Tips:

• Detecting a Natural Gas Leak:
• The air may smell like a rotten egg, especially when the smell is pervasive or lingering
• You may hear a hissing or blowing sound, depending on the size and location of the leak
• You may notice dead or discoloured vegetation in the middle of healthy vegetation; dirt or debris fly in the air; blowing or a continuous bubbling in water.
• Responding to a Natural Gas Leak:
• When you smell gas immediately leave the building or home and call for help.
• To avoid any ignition of leaked gas, when evacuating:
• Never turn electrical switches on or off
• Do not use garage doors or telephones, or any other electric appliance
• Do not start or stop any motor vehicles, or any other electrical equipment
• Do not strike a match, use a lighter, or encounter any flames or ignition sources
• Evacuate to a safe distance from the building any outdoor area in which gas can be smelled
• Call 911 and your gas company
• Wait for emergency and gas company responders to confirm your building is safe before returning.

Gasoline Safety Tips

• Never smoke when using gasoline.
• Never use gasoline near ignition sources, such as electrical appliances, and any appliance with a pilot light. 
• Never store gasoline inside your home. Store gasoline in a garage or shed, use a closed metal or plastic container approved by fire authorities or an independent testing laboratory. Do not use glass containers, milk jugs or plastic cups to store gasoline.
• Fill portable gas containers while they rest on the ground. Never fill gas storage containers inside a vehicle or in the bed of a truck.
• Let all machinery cool before refueling.
• Do not use gasoline for cleaning purposes or in your home.
• When refueling a vehicle do not get in your vehicle. The resulting static electricity could spark a fire.

Carbon Monoxide (CO) Safety Tips:

• Have your heating system, water heater and other gas, oil or coal burning appliances serviced by a qualified technician each year.
• Do not use portable flameless chemical heaters (catalytic) indoors. Although these heaters don’t have a flame, they burn gas and can cause CO to build up inside your home, cabin, or camper.
• If you smell and odor from your gas refrigerator’s cooling unit have an expert service it.  An odor from the cooling unit of your gas refrigerator can mean you have a defect in the cooling unit.  It could be giving off CO.
• When purchasing gas equipment, buy only equipment carrying the seal of a national testing agency, such as the American Gas Association or Underwriters’ Laboratories.
• Never use a gas range or oven for heating, even when the power is out.
• Never use a charcoal grill or barbecue grill indoors. Using a grill indoors will cause a buildup of CO inside your home, cabin, or camper unless you use it inside a vented fireplace. 
• Never burn charcoal indoors.  Burning charcoal—red, gray, black, or white—gives off CO.
• Never use a portable gas camp stove indoors.  Using a gas camp stove indoors can cause CO to build up inside your home, cabin or camper.
• Never use a generator inside your home, basement, or garage, or near a window, door or vent.
• Install a battery operated CO detector on each level of your home and check or replace the battery when you change the time on your clocks each spring and fall.
• Open the windows and turn off any appliances you believe to be the source of CO.
• If someone in the building is experiencing CO poisoning symptoms, evacuate the building immediately and call 911 or the fire department.
• If no person exhibits CO poisoning symptoms, call your natural gas or propane company or a qualified technician to check your appliances and the level of CO in your home.
• All gas appliances must be vented so that CO will not build up in your home, cabin or camper.
• Have your chimney checked or cleaned every year. Chimneys can be blocked by debris.  This can cause CO to build up in your home or cabin.
• Never patch a vent pipe with tape or gum. This kind of patch can make CO build up in your home, cabin, or camper.
• Horizontal vent pipes to fuel appliances should not be perfectly level. Indoor vent pipes should go up slightly as they go toward outdoors. This helps prevent CO or other gases from leaking if the joints or pipes aren’t fitted tightly.
• Never place pressure washer engines indoors; near outside vents, doors, or windows; or in a garage, carport, or other enclosed space during use.

Keeping Safe from the “Silent Killer”

t As cooler weather approaches, we want to remind everyone to have furnaces and other fuel-burning appliances in their homes inspected by authorized service personnel, to prevent the serious hazards of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning.

What Is carbon monoxide?
Carbon monoxide is a colourless, odourless, tasteless and toxic gas, and is often referred to as the ‘silent killer”. When inhaled it inhibits the blood’s capacity to transport oxygen throughout the body. It can poison the body quickly in high concentrations, or slowly over long periods of time.

What are symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning?
Exposure to CO can cause flu-like symptoms such as headaches, nausea, dizziness, burning eyes, confusion, drowsiness and even loss of consciousness, In severe cases, CO poisoning can cause brain damage and death. The elderly, children and people with heart or respiratory conditions may be particularly sensitive to CO.

How Is carbon monoxide generated In the home?
Carbon monoxide is a by-product of incomplete combustion of fuel such as natural gas, propane, heating oil, kerosene, coal, charcoal, gasoline or wood. This incomplete combustion can occur in any device that depends on burning for energy or heat, such as furnaces, room heaters, fireplaces, hot water heaters, stoves or grills and any gas powered vehicle or engine. Automobiles left running in attached garages, gas barbecues operated inside the house, grills or kerosene heaters that are not properly vented, or chimneys or vents that are dirty or plugged may create unsafe levels of CO.

When properly installed, maintained and vented, any CO produced by these devices will not stay inside the home.

What are some danger signs?

• You or other members of your family have symptoms of CO exposure (see above).
• You notice a sharp, penetrating odour or smell of gas when your furnace or other fuel-burning equipment turns on.
• The air is stale or stuffy.
• The pilot light of your furnace or other fuel-burning equipment goes out.
• Chalky white powder forms on the chimney/exhaust vent pipe or soot build-up occurs around the exhaust vent.

How can unsafe levels of carbon monoxide he detected?
Carbon monoxide detectors monitor airborne concentration levels (parts per million) of carbon monoxide and sound an audible alarm when harmful CO levels are present.

Be sure that your detector has been certified to the Canadian Standards Association CAN/CGA 6.19 standard or the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) 2034 standard,

If you suspect carbon monoxide In your home…
If you or anyone else in your home is experiencing the symptoms of CO poisoning, ensure that everyone leaves the home immediately, leaving the door open. Call your local fire department or 91 1 from a neighbours telephone.

If your CO detector sounds do NOT assume it to be a false alarm. Open all doors and windows to ventilate the home. If you cannot find the problem and the alarm continues, contact the fire department. If there is a strong smell of natural gas in your home, evacuate immediately, leaving the door open, and contact your local gas utility.

If no symptoms are experienced, reset the detector and check to see if the alarm activates. If the detector sounds a second time, call the local fire department for their assistance.

If the detector does not sound a second time, check for common conditions that may have caused a CO build-up (see the accompanying illustration) or contact a qualified heating contractor to check your fuel-burning equipment.

Where should a carbon monoxide detector be located in the home?
Proper placement of a CO detector is important. In general, the human body is most vulnerable to the effects of CO during sleeping hours, so a detector should be located in or as near as possible to the sleeping area of the home.

If only one detector is being installed, it should be located near the sleeping area, where it can wake you if you are asleep.

Where sleeping areas are located in separate parts of the home, a detector should be provided for each area.

Additional CO detectors should be placed on each level of a residence and in other rooms where combustion devices are located (such as in a room that contains a solid fuel-fired appliance, gas clothes dryer or natural gas furnace), or adjacent to potential sources of CO (such as in a teenager’s room or granny suite located adjacent to an attached garage).

Unlike smoke, which rises to the ceiling, CO mixes with air. Recognizing this, a CO detector should be located at knee-height (which is about the same as prone sleeping height). Due to the possibility of tampering or damage by pets, children, vacuum cleaners and the like, it may be located up to chest height. To work properly, a detector should not be blocked by furniture, draperies or other obstructions to normal air flow.

If a combination smoke/carbon monoxide detector is used, it should be located on the ceiling, to ensure that it will detect smoke effectively.

Please refer to the manufacturer’s instructions for additional information regarding proper use and maintenance.

To keep safe, please remember:

• You have a responsibility to know about the dangers of carbon monoxide. Your knowledge and actions may save lives.
• CO detectors are a good second line of defence, but do not eliminate the need for regular inspection, maintenance and safe use of fuel-burning equipment.
• Take the time to learn about the use of CO detectors in your home to ensure your are using this equipment properly and effectively

The Office of the Fire Marshal is part of a Carbon Monoxide Awareness Committee (comprised of representatives from industry, government, fire services, public utilities, standards and certification agencies and appliance manufacturers) that is dedicated to an ongoing, coordinated approach to protecting the public against CO hazards through greater awareness and understanding.

Home heating safety information is available on the Technical Standards and Safety Authority website at www.tssa.org