Bath, NY – Following an incident earlier this week involving carbon monoxide exposure, the Bath Volunteer Fire Department has issued a reminder about the need for CO detectors.
Since 2002, it has been state law to have a carbon monoxide detector installed in your home and to make sure it is installed in the proper place and the batteries are working.
The Bath fire department was called at 8:18 p.m. Thursday to an apartment at 19½ Rumsey St. in the Village of Bath by the request of the Bath Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
An unnamed tenant had originally called a friend to say they had fallen and hit their head. The friend came to the residence to find their friend unconscious and called the ambulance, the fire department said.
When the ambulance arrived, the person was conscious but had a headache. When the crew used a monitor to check the patient’s blood-oxygen level, they found there was a carbon monoxide level of 17 parts per million, prompting the call for the fire department.
The fire department helped the ambulance crew remove the patient from the upstairs apartment and then asked Bath Gas and Electric to respond to the scene. Bath Ambulance then transported the tenant to Corning Hospital for treatment.
At the apartment, the utility company found a natural gas-fired heater in a room, started it and found levels of carbon monoxide as high as 50 ppm in the room, the fire department said. The unit was shut down and tagged, and the landlord was notified of the malfunctioning heater.
There was a carbon monoxide detector in the apartment, but it was in another room, where the door was closed, the fire department said. Carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas, and had the ambulance crew left without finding the problem, it could have resulted in tragedy, the fire department said.