Safety First - Carbon Monoxide

I was awakened the other morning by a buzzing sound.  It was a text from my daughter.  It read, "please call I need help regarding carbon monoxide."  You can bet I called in a hurry.

The detector's battery had apparently died and so it was beeping.  But then even putting in a new battery, it went off.   So they left the house to be safe.  (Good choice!)

I think most of us know the dangers of carbon monoxide.  We know it is silent and can "get you" without any thing you can see or smell.   That is why we all should have detectors in our house.

But I think a lot of us don't quite understand the workings of the carbon monoxide detector.  I heard about a very close call happened in Nevada this fall.  The family heard a loud pop in the basement but did not think to investigate.   The house had a water boiler in the basement and an exhaust pipe had broken, leaking carbon monoxide.   Later the carbon monoxide detector went off and  a family member pulled the batteries, thinking that they needed replacing.    Probably the beeping was loud and annoying.  So she put in the new batteries, tried to reset it, but it was still going off like crazy!  She took it outside and it stopped, back in, and it went off again.  So even though the warning went off, she thought  it was malfunctioning she set it aside to deal with later.

The next morning the house owner went downstairs, and immediately felt a weakness in his legs and thought he was getting the flu.  Two house guests were in the basement who normally arise early; they were still asleep.  The owner went in to check on them.    One got up but immediately collapsed.  Then 911 was called.   When the fire department measured the levels in the basement they were off the charts (much higher than fatal levels.)  It was a miracle that everyone in the house lived.

For those in the house that were affected, effects of even the non-fatal levels of carboxyhemaglobin in their bloodstream were/will be felt for months to come.

I think this story is so true to real life!  I think many of us could have easily done the same thing, just not realizing that the warning was A WARNING!   We need to study those CO detectors; know what the sounds mean; know the difference between a battery warning and a real warning, keep reminding ourselves that bad things do happen, and heed the warnings.

I liked to read news from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and I saw their blog on the subject we are discussing.  CPSC Blog  It also has news of product recalls and other things to keep you safe.