Education is the key to this year's CO Awareness Week. John Gignac is a big supporter in the cause.
OXFORD COUNTY - It is National CO Awareness Week.
One Woodstock resident supports this campaign as they lost loved ones to carbon monoxide. John Gignac is the founder of the Hawkins-Gignac Foundation, which is a way to spread education about the silent killer. Gignac says what he looks for in education.
"What we are working on is a 365 days a year be CO safe and fire safe. It shouldn't just be one day, or one week, or one special event, it should be the whole year."
This year for CO Awareness Week, the Hawkins-Gignac Foundation donated 300 carbon monoxide alarms between the Charlottetown Fire Department, Moncton Fire Department and Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency. Gignac says you can never be too safe when it comes to protecting your house.
"CO alarms should be in your home according to the law outside your sleeping quarters. So, if you have sleeping quarters upstairs or sleeping quarters in the basement, make sure you put it outside in the hallway."
He mentions the Foundation would like to see CO detectors on every floor of people's homes. Gignac adds it has been 10 years since the provincial government passed a law stating every home in Ontario has to comply with installing mandatory CO detectors.
You can find out more about the Foundation and its mission by visiting its website.

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