Man Dies - Clogged Coal Furnace CO Fumes

Freddy · Post by **Freddy** » Mon. Jan. 20, 2014 8:35 pm

Wood'nCoal wrote: Supposedly an improperly adjusted burner (yellow flame instead of blue) will produce CO.

Winter before last on the local news was a 10 or 12 unit apartment house that was evacuated because of CO from a propane boiler. Darn lucky no one was killed. The unit had just been serviced (by an out of state company, weird) and somehow the exhaust pipe was not put back in properly. It leaked around the chimney & caused the people in the units close to the chimney to get sick. A friend stopped by to visit one of the tenants and noticed they didn't look well. The visitor happened to be a trained med-tec and was familiar with CO symptoms. They called 911 & vacated. When the fire department got there they discovered it was not that one unit, there were several people in 4 or 5 units that had headaches & nausea. Lucky, very lucky that no one was killed. Since then they've started enforcing CO detectors installed by landlords.

Hambden Bob · Post by **Hambden Bob** » Mon. Jan. 20, 2014 9:08 pm

Damned Crying Shame....All Of It.....

Post by **dcrane** » Mon. Jan. 20, 2014 9:14 pm

those damb hoppers

its sad people don't take a little time to learn just the basics of their stoves, drafting, chimney, coal safety and C0 detectors
thankfully no member of this forum will ever be in that situation because we are hell bent on safety first... playing with coal, stoves & chimneys second.

Post by **Lightning** » Tue. Jan. 21, 2014 3:09 am

Freddy wrote: When the fire department got there they discovered it was not that one unit, there were several people in 4 or 5 units that had headaches & nausea. Lucky, very lucky that no one was killed. Since then they've started enforcing CO detectors installed by landlords.

The scary thing about exhaust venting into the basement from a natural gas or propane furnace is that you are less likely to smell it.. CO itself has no odor and we cannot sense it directly.. At least coal has a sulfur smell associated with it so you might get early warning of a problem without a CO detector.. Unfortunately, the smell of it won't wake you out of a deep sleep..

Freddy · Post by **Freddy** » Tue. Jan. 21, 2014 4:42 am

Lightning wrote:At least coal has a sulfur smell associated with it so you might get early warning

"Might" being the key word. If the wind is just right I can smell sulfur from my short chimney, but the one time I had a back draft & CO showed on my detector I could not smell a thing.

Post by **Lightning** » Tue. Jan. 21, 2014 6:02 am

You're right Freddy. Sometimes the sulfur smell is too weak. It's definitely not a safe way to detect Co.

davidmcbeth3 · Post by **davidmcbeth3** » Sat. Jan. 25, 2014 7:40 am

They guy knew the risks I assume -- just forgot to check his system or figured it was good to go.

The old lady at the end of the video .. you know she's not going to buy a detector...right?

I have a stand alone CO detector .. they go bad faster than a smoke detector ... so why buy a 2-in-1 unit?

SMITTY · Post by **SMITTY** » Sat. Jan. 25, 2014 4:19 pm

Just bought a new one - a fancy digital one. It works! Already had it hit 123 when the weather changed from single digits to the 30's - had the baro uncovered with no restrictions in my combustion blower. Just one thin slice of paper over the combustion fan, and it was back to "0" in 5 minutes.

The one I replaced was 9 years old, and had a 3 year old battery in it ...

gitrdonecoal · Post by **gitrdonecoal** » Tue. Jan. 28, 2014 2:14 pm

davidmcbeth3 wrote:They guy knew the risks I assume -- just forgot to check his system or figured it was good to go.

The old lady at the end of the video .. you know she's not going to buy a detector...right?

I have a stand alone CO detector .. they go bad faster than a smoke detector ... so why buy a 2-in-1 unit?

I am captain in our local fire department, volunteer. A dual purpose smoke/co sounds great, but surprisingly they don't work perfect for both. Usually works prefect for smoke and not so prefect for CO, or vise versa. IMO, spend the extra and get one solely for CO. It's worth the $25 bucks and then have other sole smoke detectors for each room. If your coal (propane, nat gas, ect) appliance is in basement have one in basement and one in each living floor space, 1st floor and 2nd floor and so on. Some matainence for both kinds. Each year or better yet every time you change batteries (at spring and fall time change) lightly clean each detector with a vaccum or other appliance. Just a few simple rules to keep you and loved ones safe. AND make sure snow drifts are away from power vents and exhausts.

Man Dies - Clogged Coal Furnace CO Fumes

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