South Adams County Fire warns of CO2 dangers in Colorado ahead of holidays
For South Adams County Fire crews, it's the season for tackling carbon monoxide calls at a higher rate.
"Just with my crew here we've probably run over 10 CO calls within the last three or four weeks," said Lieutenant Joseph Anderson II.
Anderson told CBS Colorado that it was one particular carbon monoxide call late last month that took him by surprise.
"This is the absolute worst atmosphere I've seen in a residence in my 23-year career," he said.
The call came in on Oct. 30 at around 10 p.m. from a family member at a home on 52nd and Tejon Street. A couple was found inside the home- unconscious.
"I was the first one inside, and I noticed immediately that we had one male party down by the couch and he was nauseating, vomiting, and there was a female in the hallway with the same symptoms," said Anderson.
Anderson's CO2 detector went off, and the family was evacuated.
"I went back inside to monitor the house and the CO levels were over 450 parts per minute," said Anderson.
While normal levels of CO2 in a home can be anywhere between 5 and 15 parts per million, a detector if working properly will start to go off at about 35 parts per million. In this recent case, those levels were even 12 times higher.
"They had been sitting in 400 CO for over two hours," said Anderson. "If they would've sat in there longer than three hours, the outcome probably would've been a bit different."
Anderson says a potentially deadly outcome like this can easily be avoided in any home.
"In this instance, they had two CO detectors but they were 14 years old. They were expired," said Anderson. "They didn't have any batteries in them and they were poorly placed."
In many cases, a heater that has been recently turned on but hasn't been serviced in more than two years can be the culprit of high CO2 levels.
"We'll call in an additional unit so we have two in and two out," he said. "We have to wear… full PPE when it's over 45 until we find the source."
It is important for residents to replace CO2 detectors every five to 10 years and replace the batteries every six months while making sure they are on every floor of their home and 15 to 25 feet from any fuel-burning source.
