Portsmouth, VA – In April, a smoke and carbon monoxide detector in Leroy and Inez Stith’s apartment was found “inoperable” during an annual inspection by the housing authority. On May 9, two new ones were installed.
Yet on June 21, the Stiths were found dead in their apartment; a medical examiner determined they had died of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.
Records obtained by The Virginian-Pilot from the city and the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority show problems in 2009 with carbon monoxide in the Swanson Homes neighborhood. A fire official issued two violation notices after an incident he said could have led to mass casualties had it not been caught.
Authorities have not yet said what led to the fatal level of carbon monoxide that killed the Stiths, both 65. An environmental consultant, however, has found that water heaters in the Swanson Homes neighborhood appeared to be malfunctioning, prompting the housing authority to start replacing about 130 of them in the 210-apartment complex.
“As soon as we were made aware of anything, we’ve always jumped on it right away and remedied the situation,” said Kathy Warren, the deputy executive director of the housing authority.
A fire marshal’s investigation of the June deaths is complete but will not be released until the final autopsy report is finished, said Capt. John Parrish of the Fire Marshal Office.
Part of that investigation could explain whether the new detectors in the apartment – which are wired and contain batteries for backup – were working. The detectors emit a beep for smoke and a different beep to alert for carbon monoxide and are inspected at least once a year.
In October 2009, a carbon monoxide scare could have been fatal if not caught, firefighters said at the time. Inspectors found that a roofing contractor, Air Tech Solutions, installed venting pipes backward and covered chimneys with plastic during work, blocking the release of carbon monoxide from apartments, according to city and housing authority documents.
Firefighters found unsafe levels of carbon monoxide after a resident on Lansing Avenue called the fire department on Oct. 20, 2009, saying her smoke detector was intermittently beeping, according to a memo from a battalion chief to then-Chief Don Horton. Firefighters immediately ventilated the apartment. The contractor doing work had sealed chimneys with a plastic wrapping. Firefighters checked other apartments, which had slightly elevated readings.
Without prompt action, “this could have easily escalated into a mass casualty incident,” the battalion chief wrote to Horton that week.
A day later, the fire marshal sent a memo to other officials saying his office was working with the PRHA because oven units were generating carbon monoxide.
“We jumped right on it,” Warren said. “We worked closely with the fire department and building official’s office to remedy the situation.”
A city inspector also found that some vents that take carbon monoxide from a water heater to the outside were piped backward, and any blockage of the pipe would result in a high level of carbon monoxide in an apartment, according to the records. When the inspector put his hand partially over the reversed pipes, the carbon monoxide level in an apartment jumped substantially. The city building official’s office, in the days after the incident, ordered that all pipes and vents be inspected and fixed if they were incorrectly installed.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development inspects a sampling of units at public housing properties each year. In advance, the housing authority conducts its own inspection. Neither review includes a reading for carbon monoxide, but both include checks of the detectors.
Warren said the water heater replacements are being done as a precaution. The appliances were installed in 1993 and 1994, she said.
“It’s unfortunate that this tragic situation occurred and has brought us to this point, but I do feel that the agency is doing everything we can to ensure the safety of our residents,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Stiths are sorely missed. A friend still honks every time she drives past where they lived.
Leroy Stith, a retired housekeeping supervisor at Maryview Medical Center, was soft-spoken and liked to fish. Inez Stith cooked family dinners on Sundays and loved to garden.
Their oldest child, Arsenia Baker, said she did not believe her son when he called to tell her his grandparents had been found dead. Baker said she had spoken every day with her mom, who was counseling her as she recovered from an addiction.
They talked on the phone almost every morning. “It was like drinking coffee in the morning. Addiction. I had to hear my mama’s voice,” Baker said.
Baker recalled, however, that the day before the couple died, her mother sounded weak on the phone and said she was having trouble breathing.
If there is any good that has come of the tragedy, perhaps the deaths have helped others to be more aware, she said.
“If Mom and Dad wouldn’t have died, they wouldn’t have known nothing about the carbon monoxide. God sacrificed them in order for a lot more to live.”