By Ashley Willis
ADT customer Chris Tucker holds Life Saver Award presented to operator Caroline Joly for helping save his family from carbon monoxide at their Newfoundland home. Photo courtesy ADT.
The CO detector went off in Lynn Tucker's home on Dec. 17 in the late evening. Tucker, who was there with her son Chris, 21, and his girlfriend, ignored the alarm, believing it was malfunctioning. However, the detector, which is linked to ADT's Montreal monitoring station, was not faulty. It was actually sounding off, ADT Security Services Public Relations Director Bob Tucker (no relation to the homeowner) tells SSI.
Caroline Joly, a monitoring center operator, immediately contacted the family to warn them about the alarm. The family told Joly not to contact the fire department, but Joly followed her gut instinct instead.
"Using her training, Caroline called the fire department anyway," says Tucker. "The department came to the house a short time later and found lethal levels of CO in the home. Everyone would have died if someone had not come."
It was later determined that the family's propane stove had become blocked, thwarting poisonous fumes from properly leaving the house.
As a result of her heroism, Joly was awarded the ADT Life Saver Award on Feb. 16. The award recognizes employees who save customers' lives from life-threatening situations. ADT North America President John Koch was on hand to present Joly with the accolade, as was the Tucker family. This is the first time the award was presented in Canada.
For her part, the lifesaving dispatcher remains humble about the situation.
"I was very happy to hear that the family survived, and that I was able to use my training and skills to save them," says Joly. "I accept this ADT Life Saver on behalf of all my colleagues at the Customer Monitoring Center who do amazing work every day."
CO kills roughly 600 people in North America each year. The odorless gas also causes thousands of others to become ill.
Ashley Willis is associate editor for SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION. She can be reached at (310) 533-2419.