Smithfield RI Mother dies from CO Poisioning

Tim McElwain

SMITHFIELD, R.I. (WPRI) — A Smithfield mother has died from carbon monoxide poisoning after she and her three children were exposed to the deadly gas last week, town fire officials confirmed on Monday.
Having been working in the garage, a man (the husband) entered his Pleasant View Avenue home last Wednesday to find his wife and three children – ages 7, 9, and 11 – unconscious. He called 911 and emergency responders rushed the family to the hospital.
Kristen Latour passed away as a result of the poisoning, according to Smithfield Fire Chief Robert Seltzer.
At last check, the children have been improving with treatment.
Fire investigators said a CO buildup was caused by a blocked heating system flue – sending the poisonous gas back into the home.
Police revealed there were no working smoke or carbon monoxide detectors in the home, saying they were taken down and had the batteries removed.
In the wake of the tragedy, fire officials are urging everyone to make sure they have working carbon monoxide detectors in their homes.

Tinman

Tragic. Low level CO detectors need to be in every building that's occupied by people. Every building I walk into is because there's one hanging from my belt every day.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Very Tragic, could have been easily prevented

Steamhead

Tim McElwain said:

Police revealed there were no working smoke or carbon monoxide detectors in the home, saying they were taken down and had the batteries removed.

All together now..................

captainco

It is really frustrating that the main reason for this CO poisoning is the people didn't have a CO Alarm. How long as an industry are we going to continue to allow equipment with plugged flues to continue to operate? Currently there are millions of vented fuel burning appliances installed in building that have no safeties to shut them down if the flue gets plugged or the unit stops venting.

Years ago GAMA stated that this was okay, equipment is safe enough and it is not our concern. Wow!!

I teach my students that every appliance out there that does not have a safety spill switch needs to have one installed immediately. The fact that most installations are already set up for failure based on industry standards should scare people. Many act as if they are concerned but do nothing about it! So many say they are in the choir but never practice.

Again lets blame the consumer for not having an Alarm or not getting regular service. If we actually made everything out there safe there would be plenty of service because the safeties would be shutting everything down. Of course that might inconvenience someone so we better not do that. How many of the installations out there right now could we plug the flue or vent and they would keep on running until the people were dead? Never on my watch how about yours?

cc816

http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20170223/police-improperly-installed-pot-operation-led-to-smithfield-co-death.


Good grief. Lots of grief.

captainco

They improperly drill a hole in the wall to the garage for a hose. Is there a book on how to drill this hole properly?

You would think if the oil furnace was not venting there would be a considerable amount of soot in the house, along with smoke and a strong smell. Someone was smoking way to much weed if that is where they thought the smoke, soot and smell came from.

NY_Rob

"Firefighters said carbon monoxide readings in the house registered at 700 parts per million — more than 20 times above a safe level." ...and... "the home's carbon monoxide and smoke detectors had been disabled"
Criminally stupid!

STEVEusaPA

$60 bucks, required in Canada, and I've started putting them on all new installs since I first saw one about 8 years ago
http://www.supplyhouse.com/Field-Controls-WMO-1-Oil-Fired-Secondary-Safety-Kit