On Oct. 6, the Noblesville Fire Department collaborated on a safety event with LaPorte County-based Lindsey O’Brien Kesling (LOK) Wishing Tree Foundation. LOK Founder Dot Kesling lived in Noblesville from 1976 to 1982 and attended Noblesville High School, later moving to La Porte to raise a family.
Dot Kesling’s daughter Lindsey died in 2010 at the young age of 22 from accidental carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. Since that time, Kesling and the organization founded in her daughter’s memory have worked tirelessly to garner support from legislators at the state level to adopt CO protection, as Indiana is one of just a few states that has no such requirements. While statewide legislation is the real goal, Kesling meanwhile has been encouraging communities to adopt local ordinances and to host CO awareness events to protect their citizens.
In May 2017, Lindsey O’Brien Kesling’s hometown of La Porte became the first city in Indiana to adopt a local CO ordinance. Several other cities and counties are in various stages of adopting ordinances. Kesling appealed to the Hamilton County Commissioners in the spring, but so far they have not taken action on passing a local ordinance. Kesling encourages citizens to attend their meetings and/or contact the commissioners to encourage its adoption.
Photo provided
Between 2010 and 2017, Hamilton County grew 17.1 percent, the fastest growing county in the state, far outpacing the state’s overall population growth of 2.7 percent. These new citizens could well be moving into new homes with no CO alarm installed since it is not required by law.
“We need citizens to awaken to the threat this silent killer poses and take civic action to protect themselves by insisting that the state update their archaic building code (still operating from a 2005 code — you can’t even get a hard copy and it’s dangerous.) The state has assembled the Indiana Residential Code Committee to review the code and attempt to update it. For years they have intentionally refused to add CO protection because of several special interest groups, such as the Indiana Builders Association and the Indiana Apartment Association. The governor needs to ensure the group adds carbon monoxide protection to the state building code, since they’ve refused to pass a statewide law. This is not a partisan issue, as states blue and red have passed some sort of protection. CO is the number one poison killer and Hoosiers deserve the same protection. Meanwhile, they need to ensure that their own homes and those of friends and neighbors are safe by installing CO alarms,” states Kesling.
LOK Wishing Tree Foundation’s CO outreach would not be possible without the partnership of fire departments as well as volunteers.
“We are thankful to the Noblesville Fire Department for providing the venue and the support for this inaugural CO awareness event,” Kesling said.
Kesling also thanks Brad Beaver, Owner of Beaver Heating and Air Conditioning, a classmate of Kesling’s at Noblesville High School who volunteered at the event. Beaver said, “The CO safety coloring page was a big hit with the kids. The event was well attended.”
Beaver and other volunteers made sure attendees were offered life-saving information about CO, coupons to save on select CO alarms, and a few dozen alarms were given away free to families in need.
To learn more about the organization or about the dangers of carbon monoxide, visit lokwishingtree.org.