McDowell County, NC – A young boy is dead, his father and brother are in serious condition from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning.
They were found unconscious in their home in McDowell County this afternoon.
We’re told carbon monoxide levels were very high when first responders got to the scene in Nebo about 1:45pm this afternoon.
Neighbors say a single father and his two young sons live here and no one was answering the door all morning. The fathers girlfriend was out here, we’re told ,for hours banging, then finally her and a neighbor broke in.
When they got inside, the father and his nine-year old boy had to be jogged awake, we’re told they were semi coherent.
That neighbor that broke in carried the little boy out of the house right away, but he says for the older son though, just 12 years old, it was too late.
Derek Stevens, rescued victim, “I can take a man dying any day, I can see a grown man or a grown woman go out in this world. But a baby I can’t, that kid wasn’t no where near the age to be taken from this world and that just kills me.”
The father and that nine year old have been flown to Spartanburg Regional where we’re told they have special equipment to treat carbon monoxide poisoning.
Officials are reminding folks the only way to detect this gas is to get a detector. They’re not very expensive.
Officials are expected to be on scene much of tonight, still trying to determine exactly how this happened.