A few weeks ago, we had quite a scare when our carbon monoxide detector went off, and we had to call the fire department, which told us we had to leave our house. Luckily, we still have friends who work the night shift, so having to call someone for a place to stay at midnight wasn't too bad. Luckily, one of our friends has a really nice guest room and was happy to let us stay with her. Thank God for generous friends.
Anyway, I wrote a column about it for the paper. Here it is.
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Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Carbon monoxide detector worth the price for your life
By Kim Mills
We got kicked out of our house recently.
Our monthly mortgage was paid. And we weren’t throwing a loud party. Carbon monoxide was the culprit.
A colorless, odorless, tasteless gas required my husband and me to pack up our bags and our 1-year-old and head to a gracious friend’s house to spend the night.
Jeff and I were sitting on the couch, flipping channels, trying to make ourselves go to bed about midnight on the weekend of the big snowstorm, when a woman’s voice rang through our living room.
“Carbon monoxide warning,” she said and then repeated the phrase over and over.
Our first thought was maybe the batteries were dying. So Jeff grabbed a step-stool and changed the batteries. That seemed to quiet the voice, but just as an experiment, I stuck the old batteries in the TV remote control, and they still worked fine.
That was the clincher.
You can’t see or smell carbon monoxide, so the only way to be sure was to call the fire department.
We didn’t call 911 because we didn’t feel that we were in imminent danger, but apparently it’s protocol to run the sirens on the fire trucks anyway.
Jeff had barely hung up the phone when we heard the sirens. I couldn’t believe how fast they got to us, especially with the treacherous driving conditions.
We felt bad for probably waking the neighbors, and we felt even worse for dragging the firefighters out in the snow and ice for possibly nothing at all.
I had to laugh, because as the firefighters entered our house one by one, they carefully wiped their feet on the mat at the front door and lined up on a long throw rug so they wouldn’t make wet boot tracks on our floors.
So they were there to save us from danger, but they were not going to make a mess of it ... literally.
I was starting to get overwhelmed and sort of emotional, realizing that this definitely was not a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. Then I saw a huddle of fully-outfitted firefighters standing at the bottom of the stairs.
I walked over to try to eavesdrop on their conversation only to realize that they couldn’t figure out how to get the baby gate open.
And even after I opened the gate for them, picture someone with all that equipment trying to squeeze through an opening that is clearly not wide enough for him and the oxygen tanks he was wearing on his back.
Comic relief always seems to arrive just in time.
We have gas logs in our fireplace, a gas clothes dryer, a gas water heater and a gas heating unit. And those are the things that can produce a carbon monoxide overload.
The firefighters tested the air near every gas-operated thing we have and found that the readings on the carbon monoxide meter were 29 upstairs and 17 downstairs.
Jeff and I nodded our heads to the meter guy because we had no idea what those numbers meant and didn’t know what else to do. But looking around the room, I could see the firefighters looking at each other, and I immediately knew that those numbers couldn’t have been good.
One of the guys explained that for any reading over 9 parts per million, the house must be evacuated. Apparently, that’s enough exposure to give headaches and even flu-like symptoms.
Could that be why I had a headache all that day and had taken two long naps? I am not a nap person, and my combined naps had added up to several hours.
If it was having that effect on me, what damage could it do to our son?
The firefighters told us that the problem was most likely our gas heating unit, and we would need to have it looked at and fixed or replaced before we could go back home. We had to leave our house as soon as possible. They consider prolonged exposure to 100 parts per million to be deadly.
I know you can’t dwell on things, but every once in a while it hits me. Do you know what could’ve happened if that alarm hadn’t gone off?
The firefighters left about 12:30 am., and even though I considered calling our neighbors to let them know what was going on, I talked myself out of it, thinking maybe they were still asleep.
I was wrong.
We went back to the house the next day to pick up some more clothes, and we were scolded by the neighbors.
“You call us no matter what time it is,” our next-door neighbor said.
“Didn’t you see our faces pressed against the window like the neighbor in 'Bewitched’?” asked a woman who lives on our cul-de-sac.
It’s really nice to know that you have people you can count on. And I have a whole new appreciation of home safety devices, as well.
If you have gas logs, a gas heating unit or anything else in your house that runs on gas, please, please, please get a carbon monoxide detector. They’re not that expensive, and believe me, it’s money well spent.
Kim Mills, day desk chief, is very thankful to be safe and sound back at her home. Contact her at 373-7014 or kim.stacksmills@news-record.com
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