Two adults and two children were hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoning after their furnace filled their house with deadly levels of the gas Monday afternoon.
The Steese Area Volunteer Fire Department responded to the home on Winch Road, off the Steese Highway, when another woman who lives there came home and found three occupants unconscious and one in a confused state.
“They were suffering from the effects of carbon monoxide,” said Mitch Flynn, chief of the fire department. “This woman came home at the right time, she smelled the smoke, called 911, woke everybody up, and did the right thing.”
The home did not contain a smoke detector or carbon monoxide detector.
Carbon monoxide levels inside were more than 300 parts per million, Flynn said.
“Fifty will set off a carbon monoxide detector,” he said. “When it gets to 300, that can be lethal in a matter of hours.”
The injuries do not appear serious, according to the Alaska State Troopers.
The elevated levels resulted from a malfunctioning oil-fired furnace that sent extra soot up the chimney and choked it off.
“The chimney had sooted up almost to a close, and was forcing gases into the home,” Flynn said.
Monoxide probably began filling the house Sunday night, he said.
Any combustion appliance — a wood stove, hot water heater, or propane cooking stove — can emit carbon monoxide if not tuned properly, he said.
Chimneys get choked off several times per year in the Fairbanks area, but not typically enough to force gases into the home, he said.
Fire fighters shut off the furnace and ventilated the house of all carbon monoxide.
The house is a rental unit. One of the two children sent to the hospital belonged to the couple. The other belonged to the woman who entered the home and dialed 911.
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