CO kills sisters

Jim Davis_3

Add or I mean subtract 2 more from the gene pool

Two people in Argentine Michigan dead from generator in basement because of power outages from storms. How do people get these things hooked up if they are not smart enough to know how dangerous they are? You would think they would get electrocuted first. Maybe people think the "WARNING CAN CAUSE DEATH" is part of the lifetime warranty.

Steve Ebels_3

I'm with Heather

Education is the key. The questions are who does it, when is it done and where is it done.

Chances are good that mom and dad (if there is one) are ignorant of this themselves so it's safe to eliminate that option. Do we have any other mechanisms that teach basic life skills in society. Schools? From what I see, our schools turn out robots that function well during "normal" life experiences. However when these robots encounter something outside the boundaries of their education, whatever level that may be, it seems that many suffer some kind of brain lock. They just don't consider "what if" before blindly plunging ahead with a decision. They have a wealth of knowledge about a limited subject and very little of anything I would call "life skills".

I would love to formulate a curriculum in "life skills" for our schools. CO would of course be a topic along with how a heating system works. Basic electrical knowledge would be in there as well as automotive care and the consequences of the lack of it. Then you could get into everyday stuff like balancing a checkbook, doing a bank statement reconciliation, why it's stupid to borrow more than you can pay back, the danger of an adjustable rate mortgage. The list would be endless but the point is none of these things are actually taught anywhere and it's a shame. Look at all the people who are currently losing their homes due to a basic lack of financial skills. They didn't consider "what if" when they made their decision. They assumed that just because the nice loan officer suggested the ARM, it must be OK. Yah right! About as right as buying some meth just because the nice man offered you some on the street corner. The only thing I can see being currently taught in school regarding product safety is that if something hurts you, you can sue the crap out of whoever made it.

I could go on forever but let me just relate the following story to prove that we all have moments of idiocy no matter how much we know. Our fire dept SOP calls for the trucks to be started once per week. On a very cold January morning years ago, the pair that were on the rotation for that month went to the station and did something extremely dumb. Being that it was -10* or so, they thought that instead of taking the trucks out, they would start them in the station and leave the overhead doors open a couple feet. After doing so, they went to the back of the station and sat down for a cup of coffee. They were rendered unconscious within minutes. By the grace of God, one of the guys came to when he fell out of his chair. He crawled (because he could not walk) to the side door and got outside. After a bit of time (unknown to this day) he went back in and dragged the other guy to the open door. They both lived but the guy that was in the station the longest had various health problems the rest of his life.

Now, here's the kicker. Both of these guys were firemen and had training regarding CO. One of them was a builder, the other worked for the gas utility and had doubtlessly received gobs of training on gas and CO. They knew better but they did it anyhow. You can't "fix" or prevent people from doing something supremely stupid. We are all human and we all mess up sometimes in very big ways.

Tragic? Yes. Stupid? That too!

PS: If you want to read and see mechanical mayhem that will send you running for the hills, visit "the boiler room" at www.hearth.com . Lot's of people there with no idea what they are playing with and trying to "save money" by building it themselves. Some others there and myself try to steer folks the right way but we're sadly outnumbered.

FATBOY040575

WHY?

YOU TALK ABOUT EDUCATION ON CO AND THE DANGERS OF IT, WELL I THINK THAT WITH ALL THE DEATHS OUT THERE THAT HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY THIS PEOPLE KNOW BETTER, I FEEL SORRY FOR ALL THE FAMILIES AFFECTED BY THE STUPIDITY OF SOME, BUT IT COMES DOWN TO ONE THING, PERSONAL CHOICE.

Jim Davis_3

Maybe if insurance companies put out a memo that they will not pay off life insurance or any damages that are self inflicted people would get smarter. I call it non-meditated suicide. Not that insurance companies don't try to get out of enugh stuff now, but they get hung with some substantial claims also which ends up costing all of us.

John R. Hall

Top ten List

How about we take suggestions for "Top Ten Ways to Kill Yourself" and include CO poisoning on that list. My brain can only think of obvious ones right now.

10. Flipping off a Hell's Angels biker

9. Cleaning a toaster while it is plugged in

8. Running across a freeway during rush hour

7. Jumping out a plane without a parachute (yes, while plane is in air)

6. Inviting your mother to live with you and your family

5. Riding in the bed of a pickup truck without a tailgate

4. Consuming 20 shots of Jack in an hour

3. Running a gas generator indoors

2. Hiding under a tree during a lightning storm

1. Living in a mobile home

Your suggestions are welcome. Maybe I can write another book.

Mitch_4

the instruction

sheet on my wife's new hairdryer says not to use in the shower...

Personnaly thought that was redundant..but some idiot somewhere sued becuase of that...

Rick Kelly_6

CO Poisoning

Since part of this discussion mentions education, how many of you heating professionals have taken courses that included some form of combustion safety testing? As a heating contractor for over 20 years, I never did. For all of the conferences, seminars, and manufacturers trainings I attended, combustion safety garnered barely a whisper.

I currently work in the Home Performance field as a technical trainer. A large part of home performance involves testing homes for excess infiltration, and inadequate insulation. In other words, the goal is to tighten a house up. When that is done the amount of natural air changes is reduced. Combustion appliances competing for combustion air sometimes cannot draft properly under these tighter home improvements. We find it essential that post improvement testing be done to ensure that upgrades have not created a life threatening situation.

If any of you people out there are interested in this type of training, a starting point would be visiting the BPI (Building Performance Institute) website and checking out training opportunities in your area.

Tekkie

One near Philly

60's couple lost power because of a thunderstorm and high winds - actually all over the area - still outages. worried about their food in the refrig they hooked up the gas generator in the KITCHEN and ran to the adjacent and basement refrigs. Found when wife didn't report to work, she was flown to a Philly trauma ctr where she remains and husband expired. Power was restored within 6 hours so food would have been ok.

Tom Hopkins

online credit card processing

Nice Site!
http://google.com

Timco

Timco

This is right on top of my genny near the choke / on-off switch. In case anyone does not want to read the big words, it has nice pictures of what happens when you dis-regard a topic. If one chooses to dis-regard all of these warnings, they cannot be reached....

Tim