Meriden, CT – A family on Camp Street may have succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning Monday if not for the actions of a local school teacher, according to Fire Marshal Steve Trella.
Just before noon Monday, emergency crews responded to 181 Camp St. for reports of carbon monoxide in the house after receiving a call from Ryan Price, whose mother owns the home and rents it to a family. Trella said the carbon monoxide reading in the home was so high firefighters couldn’t enter without oxygen masks.
There is a good chance if it went any longer there would have been fatalities, Trella said outside the home Monday. We were very lucky (Price) called.
Power was shut off to the home on Friday, said Price, a teacher and coach in Meriden. He stopped by the house Monday morning to check on the tenants and heard a generator running inside. He knocked on the door but there was no answer, so he immediately called 911.
Two children and two adults were inside the home, Price said. The family answered the door for firefighters, who immediately evacuated the house. The family was evaluated at the scene but refused medical treatment, Trella said.
A normal carbon monoxide reading is around 50 parts per million, according to Trella. The home registered at 450 parts per million.
A generator was running in an enclosed back porch, Trella said. The house was condemned by a city building inspector. Trella said that by law, generators are prohibited from running indoors. The tenants had extra gas cans stored next to the running generator, he noted.
Virginia Price, the owner of the house, said she was in the process of evicting the tenants, and noted they had to be out of the home by Wednesday. Eversource Energy cut off power to the home prematurely on Friday due to an error, she said. She was happy her son checked on the tenants Monday.