4 dead in NH, CO poisoning

[Hook#3287]

Fellow riders, if you don't have a working CO detector, get one.

If you have one, test it.

I'm not going link the story, but 4 adults lost their lives due to suspected CO poisoning in NH over Christmas.
 
Something a $40 detector could have prevented.

Carbon monoxide fumes are very deadly and almost undetected w/o a co detector.

I regulate smoke and co detectors in my job and have witnessed the sad aftermath of not having, or ignoring, co detectors.

[0leman]

Several years ago we had a gas lines installed in our home.  New gas HVAC, gas cook stove, gas fireplace insert.  The first thing I did was go get a CO detector. 

Glad to see a public service announcement on the detectors.

[Jess from VA]

My detector sits right over my utility room in master bedroom.

You push the test button, it's piercingly loud enough to wake the dead. 

Dang thing went off once at night from a power surge and I elevated right off the bed. 

[Oldfishguy]

We have always had a few CO detectors.  About 10 years ago the one in the basement nearest to the furnace started just chirping at us intermittently every few days.  I thought the detector had gone bad, but had an old friend in the furnace business come for a look.  Sure enough he discovered a crack in the 25 year old furnace internals.  Yikes!!

[Jess from VA]

We have always has a few CO detectors.  About 10 years ago the one in the basement nearest to the furnace started just chirping at us intermittently every few days.  I thought the detector had gone bad, but had an old friend in the furnace business come for a look.  Sure enough he discovered a crack in the 25 year old furnace internals.  Yikes!!

Exact same thing happened in my new across the street neighbor's house.  The repair guys were there all day trying to find the problem.  It looked to me like they just kept throwing new parts (and a complete new stack from basement to 2-story roof) at it until the sniffers stopped going off.

Same as many auto repair shops will do. 

[carolinarider09]

I believe I have one as part of my "alarm/fire monitoring system" but will check to make sure.

Thanks.

[Hook#3287]

Here's a CO tragic story.

Back in 2018, I had just started in a small town as Building Commissioner and got called by the FD Chief to a property.

Late September or early October.

A homeowner had gone into his basement with his dog to fire up his coal furnace for the season.

Apparently he was down there for a while and on the first floor his wife was annoyed by "little white thingy" that kept beeping, so she removed the batteries.

Some time went by and she felt herself getting  dizzy and headachy.

She opened the cellar door and yelled down to her husband, got no answer but could see their dog at the bottom of stairs, unconscious.
 
She went down stairs and her husband was also on the ground unconscious and she couldn't wake him.

She got outside, went to a  neighbors house and they called 911.

Both the man and his dog past away. The wife went to the hospital for a couple days.

I got there a hour or so after and when we inspected the coal furnace, it had a vertical 4' long -  6" pipe going to a chimney that was almost completely plugged solid from the previous year.

It had just enough opening for the combustion fan to get the furnace going, but the fire overwhelmed the restricted pipe and filled the basement with Carbon monoxide fumes.

Looking at the furnace, I realized it was the exact same make and model as mine.

I went home and re inspected mine, just because.