The Reality of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Investigators have determined the cause of the carbon monoxide leak that killed a woman and sickened seven other people at a house in northern Minnesota.
Officials with the Beltrami County sheriff's office say Monday the gas leak has been traced to a faulty furnace in the basement and a faulty flue on the water heater.
Also Monday, doctors at Hennepin County Medical Center upgraded the condition of 30-year-old Christopher Crew to serious from critical.
The carbon monoxide leak that sickened Crew on Saturday also caused the death of 50-year-old Coleen Jennings at her home in Beltrami County's Frohn Township.
Five others, including three sheriff's deputies, were also taken to the hospital for less serious injuries. Only one person, besides Crew, remains hospitalized.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Because the mother was so weak, police had to break down the front door to get everyone out.
"They were carrying the kids out, almost unconscious," said neighbor Lori O'Connor.
She grabbed a coat and shoes to give to her friend. She said the past couple of days the family had been complaining of feeling sick.
"Very scary. She thought they all had stomach viruses," O'Connor said.
All four were rushed to Englewood Medical Center where they were treated by Dr. Carmine Gianatiempo.
He says carbon monoxide poisoning does come on fast and does feel like the flu. "Headache, nausea, vomiting, muscle aches," he said.
In more extreme cases, victims can't even get out of bed. The body, Gianatiempo said, is suffocating from the inside out as oxygen in the blood gets replaced by poison.
The mother and children remained in stable condition at the hospital on Friday night. They were expected to make a full recovery.
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Fumes tied to deaths of 4 in family in Colonia
Heater, chimney target of probe
Tuesday, October 29, 2002
BY DORE CARROLL AND ALEXANDER LANE
Star-Ledger Staff
Four family members were found dead yesterday morning in their Woodbridge home after a malfunctioning heating system and a blocked chimney apparently filled the house with carbon monoxide, authorities said.
A relative concerned that the DiNapolis had not shown up at a gathering in Pennsylvania alerted police, who discovered the bodies of Joseph A. DiNapoli, his wife, Patricia, and their grown sons, Joseph Jr. and Mark, in their house in the township's Colonia section at 10:42 a.m., police said.
Autopsy results were pending but the deaths appeared accidental, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said.
"We're doing an investigation on the condition of the furnace and the flue in the chimney to determine the levels of carbon monoxide at the scene," Kaplan said.
Neighbors had seen no sign of the DiNapolis since Thursday when they brought their trash out for collection. Yesterday the plastic pails stood empty in front of the Cape Cod-style house at 1 Joanna Place.
Joseph Sr., 67, worked as a draftsman at the Woodbridge Township engineering office in the 1980s. Patricia, also 67, was a former secretary for the nearby St. John Vianney Church in Colonia. Both were retired. Joseph Jr., known as Joey, 39, installed carpets. Mark, 43, was a computer technician.
Other family members gathered yesterday at a house nearby, too distraught to speak about the tragedy. On street corners and stoops, friends and neighbors fought back tears and traded reminiscences of the quiet family in the faded stone house.
Some spoke about how Joey would hit a punching bag in the back yard. Others recalled the fervent anti-abortion signs that would appear now and again on the front lawn of the Catholic family's house.
To Lottie Ehrhart, who lived across the street from the DiNapolis for decades, they were virtually strangers until she was immobilized by a fractured leg. Then Patricia brought over a newspaper and a cup of ice for Ehrhart's dry mouth -- and did the same every day until Ehrhart recovered. Joseph fixed her lawn mower and anything else that stopped working.
"They were kind, they were very kind," said Ehrhart, her voice faltering. "They were exactly the kind of neighbors you would want if you're having a problem."
Berniece Dedrikson, who lives down the street, said the family moved in about the same time she did -- 1955.
"I'm stunned" said Dedrikson. "Things like this don't happen in our neighborhood."
Though quiet, the DiNapolis were not without passion. Signs promoting Republican politicians were displayed on their front lawn, and a statuette of the Virgin Mary stood in their picture window yesterday.
The family was forever pressing political candidates for their stance on abortion, said Christopher Struben, a Woodbridge attorney who grew up on their street and enlisted their support in his runs for mayor and state Assembly.
"They cared about their neighborhood," Struben said. "They respected their neighbors."
Woodbridge Township Councilman Robert Luban and his wife Lorraine, who knew the DiNapolis for 20 years, described them as an unusually close-knit, politically active family. Joseph Sr. once organized a bus trip to an anti-abortion march in Washington, D.C., they recalled.
"You meet a lot of people in politics," Lorraine Luban said. "They stood out as very nice, very quiet, reserved people."
Throughout the morning and afternoon, police and firefighters cordoned off much of the street as hazardous materials crews wearing gas masks combed the house and investigators inspected the chimney, trying to figure out what caused the four deaths. As of late yesterday, authorities said the apparent culprit was a blocked chimney, coupled with a malfunctioning baseboard heating system.
Carbon monoxide kills regularly, especially when the weather turns colder and homeowners fire up their furnaces or other heating sources. Three men died in their sleep in February when fumes from a portable generator filled their apartment in Jersey City. A family of five died in Atlantic City in 1990 when the flue to their hot water heater disconnected.
Such tragedies are "entirely preventable," said Michael McGuinness, a Phillipsburg industrial hygienist and specialist in indoor environmental quality. He recommended installing a carbon monoxide detector in every bedroom.
"They can save your life," McGuinness said.
Check pipes for blockages when firing up the furnace on the first cold autumn day, and make sure fireplaces, space heaters and generators are ventilated, McGuinness said. The poisonous fumes can seep from a blocked furnace or fireplace, gas stove, kerosene-fired space heater or a car running in the garage.
"Basically, anything that's going to burn fuel to get heat is producing carbon monoxide," he said.
Carbon monoxide is colorless and odorless. Symptoms of poisoning are severe, said Andrea Harangozo, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. It starts with a headache, often accompanied by ringing in the ears and nausea and vomiting. Next comes weakness in the legs and cloudy thinking, followed by a coma and death.
Staff writers Alicia Grey, Tom Haydon and Patrick Jenkins contributed to this report.
Jersey/Metro News
Two women die of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning in Brooklyn
The Associated Press
11/2/02 10:03 AM
NEW YORK (AP) -- In a third case of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning in the region in recent days, an elderly woman and her daughter died in their Brooklyn apartment, authorities said.
The two women were found dead Friday night in their building on 14th Street in the Park Slope section, firefighter James Maguire said. Their names were not released.
Five other people, including one firefighter, were treated at Methodist Hospital for nausea and dizziness, authorities said.
On Tuesday, a couple was found dead in their Queens home with their car running in their garage, and on Monday, an elderly couple and their two grown sons were apparently poisoned by carbon monoxide at their home in Woodbridge, N.J.