Alberta tenant calls for building code changes after carbon monoxide scare

An Edmonton woman taken to hospital after being exposed to carbon monoxide at home is calling for changes to the Alberta building code to mandate alarms in all residences.

Yamilé López was one of seven people taken to hospital early on Feb. 7 after paramedics and firefighters discovered high levels of the colourless, odourless toxic gas in the basement of her Ritchie apartment building, which was built in the 1970s.

The company that owns the building told CBC that a carbon monoxide detector it had installed on the ground floor activated but was disabled by a tenant who thought it was a false alarm. 

The incident was among dozens of cases of unintentional CO poisoning Edmonton firefighters have responded to this year. According to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, accidental carbon monoxide poisoning killed 64 people in Alberta from 2020 until 2023.

Breathing in carbon monoxide reduces the body's ability to carry oxygen in the blood. At high levels, it can cause convulsions, loss of consciousness, coma and death.

López, who didn't have a carbon monoxide detector in her apartment, says legislation mandating the devices in all residential dwellings in Alberta could prevent more poisonings and deaths.

"It will save lives for sure," she said.

Carbon monoxide alarms are mandatory for new builds, additions and alterations in Alberta, and have been since the province's 2006 building code came into effect in 2007. 

But the code is not retroactive, so older buildings, like López's apartment in Ritchie, do not require them. Yukon was the first jurisdiction in Canada to make the devices mandatory in all residences, in 2013.

Later that year, Ontario passed the Hawkins Gignac Act, named after Ontario Provincial Police Const. Laurie Hawkins. Hawkins, her husband and their two children died from carbon monoxide poisoning in their Woodstock, Ont., home in 2008.

Saskatchewan announced in 2021 that it would be mandating the alarms the next year.

CBC News asked if the Alberta government was considering mandating carbon monoxide detectors in all residences.

Scott Johnston, press secretary for Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver, said Albertans are welcome to retrofit their homes with alarms.

López said she and her wife, Carla Ferret, went to bed at 9 p.m. on Feb. 6 with headaches, figuring they had picked up an illness during a recent trip.