Woman found dead after house fills with CO from generator
JOHN HARTZELL
Associated Press
MILWAUKEE - A 30-year-old woman whose family had its power cut off was found dead Thursday after a gasoline-powered generator filled her home with carbon monoxide gas, police said.
"The generator was being run in the basement with apparently no ventilation," Milwaukee Police Department spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said. "The carbon monoxide was very high."
The woman was found unresponsive at a kitchen table, and rescuers pronounced her dead at 2:15 a.m., according to investigator Daphne Moutry-Allen of the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office.
Preliminary autopsy results showed Lisa Buggs died of carbon monoxide poisoning, according to a statement from the office. Eileen Weller, the office's administrative manager, said Buggs lived with a sister, Ramona, and their parents, Lee and Barbara Buggs.
Those three and two police officers were hospitalized for treatment of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning, Capt. Darlene Jenkins said.
We Energies spokeswoman Wendy Parks confirmed the utility had cut off electrical service to the family's home Wednesday. The company had discussed payment options with the family and how it could get help to pay its bill, she said.
According to the medical examiner's report, an investigator noted a bill of more than $9,000 from We Energies to Lee Buggs, and someone had made a recent payment.
Parks said she could not discuss specifics of the account. The Buggs' telephone number is unlisted, and a family member could not immediately be reached by The Associated Press for comment.
State regulators ban utilities from disconnecting people's primary heating source from Nov. 1 through April 15 each year. We Energies began cutting service April 17 for about 2,000 customers per week, Parks said.
Although final figures were not yet available, Parks said heating bills had been expected to rise 19 percent during the recently completed heating season. She said the company had increased calls to its customers about how they could get assistance.
Lt. Brian O'Connor of the Milwaukee Fire Department said people should never run gasoline-powered generators in their homes because of the dangers of the gasoline itself and the carbon monoxide produced through running the device.
The medical examiner's report said the victim's mother called another daughter who lives elsewhere around 1:15 a.m. to report a carbon monoxide detector was going off. |
