Hopedale mother, son survive lethal carbon monoxide
By Sara Withee / Daily News Staff
Saturday, November 26, 2005
HOPEDALE -- Not feeling well, Suzan Ciaramicoli laid down on her living room couch, her golden retriever nearby to help her pass the night.
But her problems became much greater at 4 a.m. when her basement smoke alarm pierced through her sleep.
"I was so stuffed up I couldn't smell anything," Ciaramicoli said.
Ciaramicoli was likely suffering from the deadly levels of carbon monoxide that had quietly amassed in her Larkin Lane home by early Wednesday morning.
Her first glimpse of any problem came after she, her 15-year-old son and their dog Pippen fled the house and watched firefighters let the smoke from a basement furnace fire move outside.
"It was just dark gray smoke," Ciaramicoli said. "You couldn't see anything."
The smoke was less concerning than the invisible and odorless danger: carbon monoxide. Less than a month after Massachusetts passed legislation mandating carbon monoxide detectors in homes, Ciaramicoli and her son were exposed to potentially fatal levels, Hopedale Fire Chief Scott Garland said.
Firefighters treat buildings with 12 parts per million of carbon monoxide with electrical fans while commercial buildings with 35 parts per million are declared unsafe for working, Garland said.
Ciaramicoli's home tested at 121 parts per million in the living area, Garland said.
"The time of day was not on their side and the level, that's a lot of carbon monoxide to be put off by a furnace," Garland said.
Ciaramicoli and her son were taken to Milford Regional Medical Center, where they were treated and released. Garland said their large 2 1/2-story home likely helped them.
The smoke alarm only alerted Ciaramicoli and her son because the furnace caught on fire. Like many others, she has no detectors for carbon monoxide.
Garland wants residents to get ahead of the new law requiring all homes to have plug-in or battery-operated carbon monoxide detectors by April 1. He also advises residents to get oil-fired heating systems inspected twice a year and gas-fired systems inspected once a year. Woodstoves and chimneys should be cleaned and inspected at the start and end of each season, he said.
Ciaramicoli said her furnace problem is surprising because her home is only five years old. But her furnace is now being fixed and she has her detector.
"We didn't have them," Ciaramicoli said. "I never realized."
She said she would have discovered the furnace hazard earlier with the carbon monoxide detectors.
"Don't waste any time. It's worth the investment," she said.
Carbon monoxide detectors cost about $30 to $50 at local home improvement stores. |
