Our monitoring station received a signal in the evening from a client’s home indicating that a carbon monoxide detector was in an alarm condition. Once in communication with the client, the fire department was requested to attend on site and the family evacuated to wait outside the home. When the fire department arrived and measured the air quality in the home, they immediately put on their oxygen masks and made their way to the furnace room. They shut down the heat and hot water which is natural gas based, and opened the windows and aired out the home. They spoke to the homeowner and told him how fortunate he was to have a carbon monoxide detector and that it was connected. Without the carbon monoxide detector they would surely have died that night. It was explained to him the next day by the company performing an inspection on his HVAC system how on that particular evening he had a “perfect storm” scenario: snow piled high along the side of his home blocking his exhaust, loose pipes and loose seams in the duct work, and a heating system that was faulty.

I met with our client and his family  — two young children and the parents, a few days later. Upon arrival he hugged me, and told me the story with tears in his eyes. I must admit that I had an overwhelming sense of emotion as I contemplated how close it came to losing lives that evening. We did a walk through of the system and we agreed on some improvements that we both wanted to improve the detection and went over some other enhancements. Before I left I asked my client for the truth — did he curse my company when that detector started to alert him to the situation at hand? He admitted that was indeed the case until he spoke to our monitoring station operator.

On contemplating the whole situation, it reinforced to me all the time, effort and hard work that the real professionals put into this profession. We battle on a daily basis “free” security systems, easy entry (and exit) from this business where apparently recurring revenue paves the streets with gold, poor service, poor training, sub-standard installations and worse maintenance — all for less than what the homeowner under most circumstances pays his gardener for flowers and snow removal per month.

Until we get it together and act as professionals, and understand the enormous responsibility that we undertake, then we are doomed to be perceived as fly by night operators who are making a buck by dispatching police who clean up the mess that we make on the taxpayers’ contribution. It is high time that we as an industry get it together and act in a manner that reflects the awesome job that we do. We need to celebrate our successes together and show the public, law enforcement and government policy makers that we are an able and willing partner in life and property safety.
 
Ivan Spector is president of Sentinel Alarm in Montreal, Que., national past president of CANASA and a member of the Central Station Alarm Association’s board of directors.