Chester, WV – Three people had to be rushed to a local hospital after being overcome by carbon monoxide exposure on Tuesday night in Chester.
Three people are still in the hospital today after being removed from this house for carbon monoxide poisoning. Hear the bizarre
First responders were called to the residence not once, but twice before they realized just how serious the situation was.
And it was all caused by a generator running in the home’s basement.
We’re probably within an hour of losing the first one, and within 30 minutes or so of losing the other ones, Chester Volunteer Fire Department Chief John Hissam said.
Things started when the Chester VFD responded to a call along 5th Street for a woman complaining of feeling sick.
When they got to the home, she was sitting on the porch, and was quickly taken to the hospital,
“We never went into the house because she was out on the porch, and she didn’t indicate that there was a problem in the house, Hissam said.
Just 30 minutes later, another call came in for the same residence.
The second call, we went in the house and the second we went into the house, we knew something was wrong because there was dog in front of us, laying there, almost dead, Hissam said.
First responders found two other people semi-conscious in the house, as well as several other pets overcome with carbon monoxide poisoning.
They had a generator running in the basement because the power had been turned off for almost 2 months and the generator overtook the entire house with the fumes, Hissam said. We’re lucky we don’t have three dead people today.
Hissam says the levels of carbon monoxide were dangerously high.
When you reach anythying over about 300, you’re going to start running into problems, Hissam said. And when you get to 600-700 range, it starts to slow you down and a thousand parts per million range, you’re in real trouble.
The levels were somewhere in the range of 1,000 to 1,900 ppms for the house. They were close to being gone.
All the pets found within the home were turned over to the Hancock County dog warden.
The three residents are still in the hospital being treated for carbon monoxide poisoning.