Carbon monoxide scare at Holiday Inn
Staff reports • September 13, 2008
High levels of carbon monoxide displaced 73 guests and three workers from the Holiday Inn Express in Sweden Saturday morning, according to the Brockport Fire Department.
Two people were sent to the hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning, Fire Chief Tim Rombaut said, and four others received treatment at the scene. Carbon monoxide levels in the hotel, 4908 S. Lake Road, were at 1,400 parts per million when crews arrived.
“This could have been a lot worse,” Rombaut said. “Exposure to levels that high can be deadly.”
A daytime manager pulled the hotel’s fire alarm when she began to feel ill and thought she smelled gas about 8:30 a.m., Rombaut said. Carbon monoxide is odorless, however, and the hotel was not equipped with carbon monoxide detectors, Rombaut said.
People were not allowed back into the building until 12:30 p.m., after it had been ventilated.
Faulty water heaters are thought to have caused the incident, Rombaut said. |
