New Orleans, LA – An apartment building in the Saulet Apartments, 1420 Annunciation St., was evacuated Friday night because of high levels of carbon monoxide, residents said.
After one resident went to a hospital and was diagnosed with carbon monoxide poisoning, hospital staff contacted the New Orleans Fire Department. Firefighters evacuated the building by setting off the fire alarm and knocking on residents’ doors.
One resident who didn’t want to be identified said the alarm went off about 3 a.m. Firefighters also pounded on her door and instructed her to evacuate into the adjoining parking garage.
Firefighters then opened all the doors to the building and went from unit to unit, measuring CO levels with handheld units.
Residents were told that a worker had left a maintenance tractor idling in a maintenance garage on the building’s ground level and the gas had seeped up through the building, causing dangerously high carbon monoxide levels in some parts of the four-story building.
The tenant in an apartment above the garage was the person who went to the hospital, residents were told.