With Orillia and surrounding communities being among the most impacted areas by last weekend’s ice storm, Oro-Medonte’s fire chief is sounding the alarm when it comes to fire safety for generator use. According to Oro-Medonte Fire & Emergency Services (OMFES), their firefighters have responded to four generator fires in the last four days. “With the prolonged power outages still experienced by many Ontario residents, the use of portable generators is quite high,” said Roree Payment, OMFES chief, in an email to CTV News. “Due to the many fires directly associated with portable generators over the last week, I want to express my concern and encourage everyone to be aware of safe generator use and fire safety practices.” OMFES provided the following fire safety tips to locals related to generator use: Payment added that crews also responded to a kitchen fire due to a stove that was left on when the power went out, and it ignited the contents on the stove once power was restored to the home. According to Hydro One, thousands in Central Ontario were still without power on Friday. Nearly 50 per cent of the City of Orillia was still in the dark on Thursday.
