Regina parents demand answers action after fatal carbon monoxide incident

A pair of Regina parents who lost their 11-year-old son in a fatal carbon monoxide incident say new findings from the fire department only support their belief that warning signs were missed before deadly gas spread through their apartment building.

On Wednesday, Regina Fire & Protective Services said its investigation concluded that a malfunctioning commercial boiler experienced a delayed ignition and explosion, causing the release of carbon monoxide into multiple suites in an Albert Street building on Dec. 19.

This incident killed Henry Losco and sent his father, Sergio, to the hospital. Sergio later recovered.

Read more:

• Grieving parents in Regina hope to prevent other carbon monoxide deaths
• Fundraiser identifies boy, 11, who died from carbon monoxide leak at Regina apartment
• One person dead after carbon monoxide leak, but emergency crews ‘saved a lot of lives’

For Henry’s mother, Marina Hills, the update was devastating but clarifying.

“The update made us sob – ugly sob –for days, but it confirmed that our anger is justified because alarms started going off at 1:30 on the second floor,” Hills said outside her home. “What hit us hard the most was the fact that there was a massive explosion in the boiler room.”

Hill said the family now believes someone should have checked the boiler room when alarms first sounded.

“If anybody went to check the fuel burning appliances, they said they would have clearly seen the explosion. It probably shook the building,” Hills said. “That kind of confirms to us that nobody went to check the boiler room when the alarm started going off.”

When asked, Fire Chief Layne Jackson said he could not get into the details of whether residents heard the explosion. He said the investigation was completed with the help of the Technical Safety Authority of Saskatchewan.

Jackson said the failed unit was identified as an NTI FTG 2000 boiler, and the manufacturer has since issued a safety notice for that model. The notice warned delayed ignition could occur under certain installation conditions and said users should stop using the boiler until a free upgrade kit is installed.

The family said that finding pointed not just to a mechanical failure, but to what Hill called a broader chain of breakdowns.

“They said it’s like Swiss cheese, is what happened,” Hills said. “The boilers failing and then exploding, and then the human error of where the alarms were. Were alarms in the boiler room, did anything get set off? Why wasn’t a call made to the fire department, 911, to TSASK, to anyone, really?”

Hill said those questions now sit at the centre of the family’s grief.

“I shouldn’t have been the one to come home at 7:45 at night and find my son and my husband almost dead,” Hills said. “My son died in his bed, and he didn’t get the chance to save himself.”

Sergio Losco said the family is now calling for accountability, not only from those responsible for the building, but also the manufacturer.

“We want to do even a call to action for everyone that is a customer of this company,” he said. “There is something wrong, something needs to be done.”

The family is also urging other residents in the building to seek legal advice, and said they are exploring legal action themselves.

“This is a call to action for legal counsel for everybody in that building,” Hills said. “Everybody almost died that night.”

Losco added that the focus should be on safety, not cost.

“Even landlords need to be aware that what is important is the safety of the people of their tenants, and not cut corners,” he said.

At the same time, the couple said they are now trying to channel their grief into action by lobbying for stricter carbon monoxide rules in the province. The two are working with the official Opposition on what they are calling “Henry’s Law,” which would require carbon monoxide detectors in every room and tougher penalties for violations.

“We need laws with teeth,” Hills said. “We want carbon monoxide detectors in every room, not just near fuel-burning appliances, not just one on a floor. There needs to be one in every room.”

Losco said the family hoped Saskatchewan could go further, pointing to other jurisdictions that already have stricter rules.

“We hopefully will be able to propose it soon at the legislature, and hope that will be one step for safety in Saskatchewan,” he said.

The family said other investigations are still ongoing, including one by major crimes, which Regina Police confirmed.

Hills said they have also remained in contact with Italy’s foreign ministry because Henry was an Italian national. She said the family’s goal now is simple: accountability, awareness, and making sure no other family has to go through what they have.

“We’re not going to stop,” Hills said. “We’re going to do this for our son.”