An Ottawa company is coming under fire for an offer it made to help the McNeil family, whose little boy Cody was badly burned in a fire inside his crib in his west-end Ottawa home early Wednesday morning.

The company called “Rumidifier” makes humidifiers that don't use electricity and said the tragedy wouldn't have happened if its product had been used.

There's no confirmation that a humidifer was responsible for this fire. But the owner of "Rumidifier" isn't waiting and, instead, is offering a discount on its product and offering some of the proceeds of any sales in the next month to help the family and CHEO.

Jeri Rodrigs takes a lot of pride in his invention.  The former Nortel software designer has been making the "Rumidifier" for 3 years and is convinced its greener and safer than any electrical unit.  These units just fit right over a vent with no plugging it in.

“If I can avoid one incident,” says Rodrigs, “If I can save one life, that is the main goal.”

Rodrigs says the crib fire that badly burned 18-month-old Cody McNeil earlier this week prompted him to act.  He says his product would have prevented the fire and is offering a dollar on the sale of every Rumidifier to go towards CHEO and two dollars of each unit towards the McNeil family over the next 30 days.  The company says, as a minimum, it will provide the family with $1000 and CHEO with $500.

“It's a win-win situation for family so they can increase the Go Fund Me campaign,” says Rodrigs, “we are putting more money into that and we are also making people aware that this is a good solution to prevent these problems in the future.”

But what he calls "win-win", others call bad taste.  On his business' Facebook site, one person posted:

"What a bunch of tragedy profiteers you are."

Another added, “Have some compassion. I hope you go out of business.”

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but the boy's father told NewsTalk Radio 580 CFRA that the electric humidifier in the room WAS on fire .

“The only fire I saw at that point (of running into Cody’s room),” McNeil said, “was the humidifier and the cord going into the wall from the humidifier and when we opened the door, it released oxygen into the room and that's when his crib went up in flames.”

Rodrigs knows people may say he's capitalizing on this tragedy but he maintains he's just trying to help and if his company gets traction as a result, he'll take it.

“Business owners take a problem and solve it and this is a problem and we want to solve it.”

Cody remains in critical condition with 2nd and 3rd degree burns.  His Go Fund Me page now tops $12-thousand.