Woonsocket, RI – Two high-profile incidents this month have drawn new attention to a danger that safety officials have warned the public of for decades: carbon monoxide.
While it may be easy to neglect the little alarm that, thanks to state and federal law, has graced the walls of most homes for so long that it’s forgotten, the stories of two area residents illustrate the continued importance of keeping that detector in good working order.
Woonsocket City Council member Daniel Gendron said last month that the device saved his life.
“I had a significant problem and we were very lucky that we had a carbon monoxide detector,” said Gendron.
The councilor, his wife and his daughter arrived home from work around the same time on the night of Wednesday, Feb. 13, to be greeted by an ear-piercing alarm. After investigating the home, Gendron located the source of the noise and alerted the Fire Department.
“I expected that what they would say is it was another faulty carbon monoxide detector, and it was quite the opposite,” Gendron said.
Gendron was told that a carbon monoxide reading of 300 parts per million is deadly in about two hours, while a reading of 400 ppm is deadly in just one.
The family’s boiler had a reading of 5,000 ppm.
“They said that had we gone to sleep that night in absence of a carbon monoxide detector, the three of us would not have woken up. The outcome of the situation could have been devastating.”
Darlene Walsh, the principal of St. Phillip School in Greenville, wasn’t quite as fortunate, escaping with her life thanks only to quick action by a concerned co-worker.
When the principal, well known for her dependability, hadn’t shown up to the school by 10 a.m. on Friday, March 1, and uncharacteristically didn’t call to explain why, the pastor of the Catholic parish, the Rev. Francis C. Santilli, knew there was cause for alarm.
When no one answered the phone at her home in East Greenwich, Father Santilli called police there, and within minutes Officer Daniel Petrucci arrived at the house.
He entered an unlocked rear door to find Walsh and her husband, Richard, both 64, and their 34-year-old son, also Richard, barely conscious and suffering from severe carbon monoxide poisoning.
Santilli’s call most likely saved all three lives.
“It’s amazing that God brought them through this – they should have been dead,” he told The Valley Breeze & Observer.
East Greenwich Police Lt. Paul Nahrgang said that had his department not been alerted, the three victims would likely have died “within the hour,” because the levels of carbon monoxide in the house were at least seven times safe levels.
The source of the leakage, as with the Gendron’s home, was a gas furnace in the cellar.
According to Nahrgang, police and subsequently arriving rescue units found Mrs. Walsh lying on a second-floor stairway with her eyes open but unable to speak. They discovered her husband on a bedroom floor with “limited consciousness” and the son “unresponsive but conscious” in another room.
According to East Greenwich Fire Marshal Steven Hughes, the home’s lone carbon monoxide alarm, on the second floor near the bedrooms, was inoperable because the batteries had previously been disconnected.
He said a single detector in homes is all that’s required by law, but that safety personnel strongly advise installing one on every floor. If one sounds, he said, the best action is to immediately call 911 because toxic carbon monoxide, colorless and odorless, cannot be detected by the senses.
As of last week, Walsh and her husband Dick were in fair condition at Rhode Island Hospital; their son in stable condition at Kent.
Both stories could have ended very differently. While there are no complete statistics as to how many people are treated or die from CO poisoning annually, news reports of such incidents are alarmingly common. And local emergency officials say they’ve seen plenty of close calls.
Lime Rock Fire District Chief Frank Sylvester said there were two incidents last year that “could’ve been serious,” but were caught in time.
Residents called from Sherman Avenue one day, saying they felt ill, dizzy and nauseous. Firefighters found elevated levels of carbon monoxide, Sylvester said.
Squirrels were responsible for another call last year after they built a nest inside the chimney of a Great Road home, he said, trapping the heat and carbon monoxide inside with no escape.
Sylvester said if he had to choose between the two, he would rather have a carbon monoxide detector than a smoke detector.
“It’s known as the silent killer,” he said.
This winter, North Providence rescue personnel responded to 34 confirmed incidents of carbon monoxide, according to Ralph Nahigian, director of communications for the town.
And in Pawtucket, Fire Chief William Sisson said nine out of 86 calls about carbon monoxide resulted in someone being taken to the hospital. Sisson pointed out that there are many ways carbon monoxide can enter a home, from running dirty furnaces to poor maintenance of parts.
But stories on the other end of the spectrum illustrate why a such serious problem, which can be solved with a simple alert system, is often ignored.
Woonsocket Fire Chief Gary Lataille said that in 2012, fire fighters responded to calls about carbon monoxide 85 times, but most of those reports were the result of faulty batteries. Last year, the city reported no major incidents or fatalities.
Calls in Lincoln, which fire chiefs said occur around two to three times a month, were reportedly also nearly always routine and caused by faulty detectors.
Because carbon monoxide detectors are so sensitive, Sisson pointed out, alarms often go off even when no one is in danger.
All new construction since 2003 in the state requires that the detectors are hardwired into the building, but in homes across Rhode Island, dying batteries and faulty alarms plague homeowners, leading some to question the necessity of the devices.
For near victims like Gendron, however, the evidence is clear.
“This obviously hit home very hard with me and my family,” he said. “Please, if you do not have working carbon monoxide detectors, I can attest to their value. You need to have it. I can say firsthand: It saved our lives. If you don’t have one, go out and get one today and if you do have one, test to make sure that it’s working.”
Carbon monoxide detectors are available at most local hardware stores for anywhere from $20 to $100.