Many residents at an Airdrie apartment building at the centre of a fatal carbon monoxide leak have booked inspectors to look over their water heaters in their units,

On Thursday evening, the City of Airdrie issued a notice to the residents of all 136 units of 700 Willowbrook Road N.W. saying that they needed to have their gas heating units professionally inspected.

The order comes after a carbon monoxide leak in early February that led to the death of a 12-year-old Trai Schlicter, who lived in the building.

“[It’s] just because of the volume of people that live in that building. Our concern for their safety is imperative and important. So we took that lead to ensure that there were no more events if we could mitigate them,” said Pertti Harkonen, team leader for building inspections with the City of Airdrie.

Harkonen says that inspections will be done on all of the appliances in each and every unit inside the building.

“They’re an on-demand hot water boiler system that creates not only the heating system in the unit but the appliance also provides the domestic hot water for the unit.”

He says that it’s the only building in the community that has them installed.

The RCMP said the water heater wasn’t venting properly and the associated carbon monoxide leak led to Trai’s death. Police found the death non-criminal in nature.

A licenced pipefitter took CTV Calgary into the building and looked at the heating unit in Trai’s home.

Duane Simpson said he could see where carbon monoxide could end up leaking from the unit.

“They’re not sealed all the way to the joint on the outside. There should be a seal to ensure that no trapped gas can come through anywhere.”

Simpson said the heater was not installed correctly because whoever did wasn’t paying proper attention.

“They’re too much in a rush to get out instead of sitting there and ensuring they do a proper job.”

Harkonen says that the only inspector the city sent went to the building shortly after the fatal incident. He says that’s when they identified the problem that led them to issue the notice.

Once the inspections have all been completed it will be left up to the homeowners and the condo board about how to proceed with any issues, at their own expense.

“If there is a failure in the device, either the appliance or the venting, or maybe an internal processor or whatever, they would have to be corrected at the cost of the owners,” Harkonen says.

First Service Residential, the company that manages the building, said in a statement that it is working with the city on the issue:

We will continue cooperating with all corresponding parties during this process to take the appropriate steps and comply with the city’s safety recommendations for residents and the building.

One resident of the building, Chris Carlson, says he’s already made up his mind, no matter what the result of his ATCO inspection next week says.

He says he was concerned when the alarms went off two weeks ago and got no information about what was going on. He adds that the inspection will lead to some relief.

“I am not sure about everyone else, but when the alarms are going off and everything, we weren't really kept in the loop with anything. It's kind of an inconvenience, but I've got two kids and actually having someone come in and see if everything is okay, I think it's for the best.”

The carbon monoxide detector from the fire department also helped reassure him, but he says he won’t be staying past his lease.

“When the term of our lease is up, we're definitely moving out.”

(With files from Brenna Rose)