Alberta fire chief warns of screen hazard after baby falls through window into basement

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally said the incident occurred on Wednesday. It has been corrected to say it occurred on Tuesday.

A one-year-old child was taken to hospital on Tuesday after falling through a screen window at a house in the central Alberta town of Penhold, according to the Penhold Fire Department.

“Shortly after 8:30 this morning we were called for a medical call and when we arrived on scene, we found that a one-year-old child had crawled outside the house to a basement window… and fallen through the window onto the floor in the basement,” Fire Chief Jim Pendergast said.

He said the child’s injuries were not believed to be life-threatening and he was taken to hospital by paramedics.

Pendergast said it appeared the screen window was properly installed, but suggested parents can take extra steps to protect their children from having the same thing happen to them.

“The screen is not designed to hold even the weight of a small child,” Pendergast said. “There are safety protectors you can get so the screen won’t come loose.

“When parents have young kids, you always try to safety your house as best as you can with plugs in your electrical outlets and gates at the top of the stairs and bottom of the stairs,” he said. “We also encourage everyone to make sure to get devices that can make safe their window screens as well.”

READ MORE: 2 children injured in separate falls from Calgary windows Wednesday

Watch below: On May 3, 2017, Doug Vaesen filed this report after two children were injured after falling from second-storey windows in separate incidents.

2:15 2 children injured in Wednesday window falls

Pendergast said he doesn’t often receive calls of children falling through windows in his jurisdiction but that the circumstances on Tuesday were particularly uncommon.

“This is certainly unusual. Obviously there’s dangers of children falling out of windows through screens but very rarely is it the case that a child falls from outside into the house.”