Bangor, ME – One person had to be taken to the hospital for carbon monoxide inhalation in Bangor Tuesday.
Bangor Firefighters were called to an apartment building off Stillwater Avenue for a report that a CO detector was going off.
Crews responded to the call and were able to get the two people out safely.
We spoke with Bangor Fire Assistant Chief Matt Costello, who said sometimes extreme humidity can effect smoke detectors, but even still, you can never ignore any detector going off.
“Typically we don’t get many false alarms on those like we do on smoke alarms,” said Costello. “When they go off don’t hesitate to call us. If these people today would’ve ignored that the outcome would not have been that great. By them calling us we found out that they had a defective hot water heater, that the building was full of a high level of carbon monoxide and by them calling us we were able to ventilate the place and get that out, but the numbers were extremely high and if they would’ve ignored that the outcome wouldn’t of been good for them.”
The other apartments in the building were all checked and found to be fine.
According to members of Bangor Fire, the levels of carbon monoxide in the apartment were so high, the two people inside would have been unconscious or dead in two to three hours if they didn’t act.