Columbus, OH – Ten residents at an apartment on Williams Street just north of the Ohio State University have found temporary places to stay.
An early morning Carbon Monoxide leak sent several people to the hospital.
Chris McDermott said he’d only been asleep for a few hours, when he awoke to firefighters hurrying the building’s residents outside.
“I was just asleep and my roommate came in and said I had to get out of the place, it took about five minutes to gather everything, said McDermott.
Some of the other tenants had already become sick.
I know that the tenants upstairs, they went to the hospital early this morning and said they were feeling nauseous and they had like headache symptoms, said McDermott.
Displaying symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, firefighters tested the air in the building and detected high levels of CO.
They traced it back to the building’s furnace, which had been pumping the poisonous air into all five units.
Carbon monoxide detectors aren’t required under Ohio law, but because the gas is colorless, odorless and tasteless, fire safety officials said having one could literally save your life.
None of the tenants was taken to the hospital, but McDermott said he and most of the apartment’s other residents, some of who are OSU students, aren’t taking any chances.
I’m pretty sure everybody’s gone because the heat is off and we don’t have any hot water, so I’m pretty sure everybody’s going home now, he added.