Clear Spring, MD – A carbon-monoxide leak at a Clear Spring hotel could have been deadly had an ambulance crew not been called there Thursday night to help a person with a medical condition, according to a fire official.
Zach Reid, deputy chief of the Clear Spring Volunteer Fire Co., said a carbon-monoxide detector that the ambulance crew started to carry just this week showed dangerous levels of the gas shortly before 9 p.m. when they entered the Sleep Inn & Suites off Interstate 70.
The results could have been deadly if the problem wasn’t detected, and the hotel’s employees and 20 or so guests weren’t evacuated, he said.
“If people slept in there, it obviously would have been bad,” Reid said.
The origin of the leak was tracked to a propane pool heater.
Reid said firefighters turned off the heater and told the hotel management to have it repaired.
The Clear Spring Ambulance Club started to carry a $120 carbon-monoxide detector for the first time on Monday, according to Reid.
He said firefighters usually carry more sensitive detectors that can cost between $400 and several thousand dollars.
Firefighters stayed at the scene for about three hours.
Reid said that after the hotel was ventilated, the guests were allowed to return to the building.
No one was injured, he said.
Williamsport Fire and Rescue, Washington County Special Operations and the Washington County Division of Emergency Services assisted at the scene.
Choice Hotels, the parent company of Sleep Inn & Suites, did not return a message seeking comment.