Carbon Monoxide Leaves 2 Dead, 2 Hospitalized
CHICAGO (CBS) - Two people have died and two others were hospitalized over a five day period, all residents of a South Side house suspected of harboring fatal levels of carbon monoxide. CBS 2's Mike Parker reports.
Every year at this time, Peoples Gas issues warnings that you should take care to prevent carbon monoxide, or CO poisoning, with the start of the winter heating season. Apparently, those warnings went unheeded in a West Englewood neighborhood home.
The first sign that something was terribly wrong in the house came last Saturday when 42-year-old Lydia Watkins was found dead with high levels of CO in her blood.
Her longtime friend Sharon Burnett is mourning.
"We just did a lot of fun things, never had an argument, and this death just tore me up," Burnett said. "It was a real shock to me."
After Watkins' body was found, Peoples Gas and Chicago Fire Department investigators examined the house.
Peoples Gas spokesman Bonnie Johnson says the investigation found "a couple of faulty appliances, a water heater and a boiler. We disconnected those appliances and capped off the gas line."
They also warned the residents to use a trained technician to make repairs.
Three days later, on Wednesday, another resident of the house, 52-year-old Edward Henderson died, apparently of carbon monoxide. Two other men were overcome and taken to a hospital.
Johnson said, "We went back out to the scene and found out that the appliances had been reconnected."
And not, apparently, by an expert. Peoples Gas says the tragedies point up the need to have working CO detectors in the home and make sure the batteries are working.
Two doors down from the house where all this happened, a friend of Henderson is aware of that advice.
Says Ethel Patterson, "That's the reason I check on my furnace and make sure that it's clean and everything. And I've got a carbon monoxide detector and I make sure the batteries are working all the time."
Symptoms of CO poisoning can include nausea, mental confusion or fainting. If you think you're in danger, get fresh air at once. Open doors and windows, get outside immediately and call 911.
