A carbon monoxide detector alarm saved a Fleetwood woman’s life after Winter Storm Jonas.
Deb Schwartz was home alone when her carbon monoxide alarm went off twice, the first time she ignored it, but the second time she called 911 and Fleetwood Fire Company responded to find elevated carbon monoxide levels and an improperly working heater.
“I’m lucky because I was foolish to ignore it the first time,” she said. “I’m grateful for the Fleetwood Fire Company and police.”
Schwartz wanted to share her story to help save other people’s lives.
“I know of families who lost people to carbon monoxide poisoning and how traumatic that experience is, so even just to have one family not to have to go through that, that is my hope,” she said.
Schwartz said 20 years ago during the Blizzard of 1996 she learned the hard way about the air intake for heaters. The air intake valve filled up with snow so that there was ice in the heater and the heater stopped working.
“This blizzard I knew to clear out the air intake,” said Schwartz.
Fleetwood Borough sent out a message to residents to be sure to clear snow away from air intake and vents, which alerted Schwartz to the need to clear the vents also. After the snow storm was over at about midnight on Saturday, Jan. 23, her carbon monoxide alarm went off. Schwartz figured the vents were blocked so she opened windows and doors and took the dog out with her to dig out the two feet of snow away from the intake and vents. With the vents clear and the alarm stopped, she hoped everything was okay, turned the heater down and went to bed with the window open.
“I really debated whether I should call 911 or not,” she said. “Foolishly, I decided not to.”
Schwartz posted on Facebook what had happened and friends from the fire company responded that she should call 911, keep the doors and windows closed and evacuate.
Two days later on Tuesday morning, Jan. 26, at 4 a.m., the carbon monoxide alarm went off while she was asleep.
“I knew exactly what to do because my friends from the fire company had told me,” she said.
Schwartz grabbed her keys, purse, phone and dog and went outside, keeping the doors and windows closed. She called 911 and Fleetwood firefighters arrived.
“It wasn’t a false alarm. There were elevated carbon monoxide levels,” said Schwartz. “It was the heater, not the vent. There was something wrong with the heater.”
Schwartz learned to not only keep the intake and vents cleared of snow and ice but also to always have working carbon monoxide detectors. She had received hers as a gift a few years ago. The detector simply plugs into an outlet.
“If they go off, don’t ignore them. Call 911,” said Schwartz. “Make sure they work and replace them periodically.”
Schwartz feels lucky because her college age and young adult children were not home at the time. She is particularly grateful that this happened while she was home instead of when her son was home alone recently while she was away. Her concern is that he would have ignored the alarm.
Fleetwood Fire Company Fire Chief John R. Manmiller also hopes the community learns from Schwartz’ experience.
“Don’t take your CO detector for granted. Change batteries often. You purchased it for a reason. Let it do its job. If it is more than 10 years old or you do not know how old it is, replace it,” said Manmiller.
He explained that carbon monoxide is produced when a fossel fuel burns incompletely because of insufficient oxygen. Fuels that create CO include, natural gas, propane, kerosene, gasoline, coal, wood, and charcoal. A normal burning condition can also cause CO to enter a home if there is a problem with the chimney being blocked. Strong winds can also effect the natural draft of a chimney causing negative pressure which pushes CO into the home, he said.
Manmiller said that a CO detector is setup to alarm at 70 parts per million after one to four hours. At 150 parts per million, it must alarm after 10 to 50 minutes. At 400 parts per million it must alarm after 4 to 15 minutes.
“Symptoms from early exposure mimic the flu: headache, nausea, dizziness, shortness of breath and confusion. CO is a colorless and odorless gas. Some people will say their detector went off but they didn’t smell anything so they took the battery out,” he said.
Manmiller said when you call 911, the call taker will tell you to keep doors and windows shut and evacuate the building.
“Keeping the building shut will usually help the fire company figure out where the source of the problem is coming from. Once the source is determined and the unit involved is shut down, the fire company will then open up the building and ventilate either naturally or with some type of forced ventilation such as a high volume fan to force fresh air into the home,” said Manmiller.
