Bastrop, TX – Exposure to carbon monoxide sent 14 people in Bastrop to Austin-area hospitals Saturday night, said Bastrop ESD No. 2 Assistant Chief Andreas Rosales.
The 6 children and 8 adults are all members of a family that had evacuated from Houston due to flooding from Hurricane Harvey, he said. They were staying with relatives at a private residence not at a shelter.
It happened in the 100 block of Woodland Court south of SH 71 and east of Tahitian Drive.
We determined it was a faulty vent on the tank-less hot water heater, Rosales said.
The children were taken to Dell Children’s Medical Center, while the adults were split between St. David’s South Austin Medical Center and the main St. David’s Medical Center. Of the 14, 10 of them were confirmed to have suffered carbon monoxide poisoning.
We believe they are stable at this time, Rosales said. It’s not something we see often. And it’s silent, and it’s normally undetected. We urge people to go out and get carbon monoxide detectors and put them in your house.