Halloween has been on the rise in Windsor — and not just in candy sales.
From towering animatronics to elaborate yard displays, more families are turning their front lawns into full-blown haunted attractions.
But with bigger scares come bigger safety concerns. Last year, one local “home haunt” was temporarily shut down after fire code complaints, leaving some Halloween lovers spooked for all the wrong reasons.
This year, Windsor Fire & Rescue Services is trying to make sure that doesn’t happen again — teaming up with Scarehouse Windsor and Spirit Halloween to roll out a new safety initiative.
“Unfortunately, last year there was a complaint given to one of the home haunts … it was a thing,” said Shawn Lippert, co-owner of Scarehouse Windsor. “They worked with that owner, they eventually got that owner up and running, but they said there’s got to be a better way to get safety information out.”
That’s when Scarehouse Windsor reached out to Windsor Fire & Rescue Services, and Spirit Halloween joined the conversation.
Together, the three have launched a new program to help keep neighbourhood haunts both fun and fire-code friendly.
Here’s how it works: Windsor Fire has created a simple set of safety requirements, Scarehouse is spreading the word through its network of Halloween die-hards and Spirit Halloween is offering up the incentive — a chance to win a free animatronic and bragging rights for the best-decorated “home haunt” in the city.
The safety checklist
The fire department has published a simple six-point list for anyone setting up a home haunt:
- ABC fire extinguishers on site
- No smoking signage posted
- Glow-in-the-dark exit signs
- Limited combustibles
- Clearly labelled exit locations
- A submitted safety plan
Anyone filling out a fire safety plan and dropping it off at Spirit Halloween at Windsor Crossing will be entered into a draw for a Halloween animatronic.
Crowning Windsor’s best home haunt
The contest doesn’t end with safety. Once registered, home haunts will also be visited by Spirit Halloween officials — with the best haunt in the city crowned on Oct. 27.
“We’re just taking what we know and the fire department and what they know, we put them together and now we’re getting that information out to all our home haunters,” said Lippert. “We’re going to make it fun. We’re going to get a trophy. We’re just going to make a bad situation last year and use that to make it a better situation this year.”
For Lippert, it’s also about celebrating a community that has grown alongside Halloween’s retail boom.
“Halloween’s been blowing up for the last decade … it’s just on this cusp of kind of being this massive thing,” said Lippert.
And while Scarehouse Windsor is known for its professional scares, Lippert says the same passion fuels both.
“We live Halloween across Windsor. It’s in us,” he said. “We just want to make sure everybody gets to feel what we feel all the time here at Scarehouse Windsor.”