Livonia, NY – A faulty boiler almost turned deadly Halloween night in Livonia.
A Livonia Ambulance was dispatched to a residence on Niver Road at around 9:20 p.m. Tuesday for reports of an unconscious 12-year-old female with ineffective breathing.
The advanced life support technician assigned to the call quickly recognized the need for a response by the fire department and shortly thereafter members of the Livonia Fire Department was dispatched as well.
Arriving units found that multiple people in the residence were not feeling well, which lead to a suspicion of a carbon monoxide problem. This was quickly confirmed by firefighters.
After evacuating the residence and taking steps to vent the structure, firefighters found extremely high levels of carbon monoxide in the basement of the building caused by a boiler that was not properly venting.
Three patients were transported by ambulance to a local hospital.
Firefighters completely cleared the house of carbon monoxide and code enforcement red tagged the boiler.
In light of the close call, the Livonia Fire Department is reminding members of the public of the need for working carbon monoxide detectors. Most detectors are only good for five years and many operate on batteries, which should be changed regularly.
You can’t see or smell carbon monoxide, but at high levels it can kill a person in minutes.
In order to comply with New York’s Amanda’s Law, named for 16-year-old Amanda Hansen of West Seneca, New York, who died in 2009 due to a carbon monoxide leak from a defective boiler while she was sleeping at a friend’s house, a minimum of one carbon monoxide detector must be installed in every home where there is a carbon monoxide source.