Petaluma firefighters save residents of fourplex from carbon monoxide poisoning

Petaluma firefighters recently saved several residents from possible death when they found a furnace producing dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide in a complex where three of four units had no device monitoring the gas levels.

A few minutes after 6:20 p.m. ?Dec. 19, the Petaluma Fire Department responded to a carbon monoxide alarm going off in the sole upstairs unit of a Kentucky Street fourplex north of the city’s historic downtown commercial district. But after airing out the unit, firefighters couldn’t get any of the upper unit’s gas appliances to generate “noticeable amounts” of the dangerous odorless gas, according to a department news release.

Then a fire captain recalled a recent San Francisco incident where an elderly resident died and several others were affected after carbon monoxide began leaking from a residential building’s lower unit. So Petaluma firefighters investigated the unit downstairs from the home where the alarm went off. They ventilated the downstairs unit and upon turning the furnace back on found carbon monoxide levels so high they exceeded the monitor’s detection capabilities, the fire department said in the release.

Such high levels of the gas could be fatal in a matter of hours, fire officials said.

Neither the downstairs unit with the faulty furnace nor the two other ground floor residences had carbon monoxide detectors, which cost around $20 and are required by state law for all residences with attached garages and gas appliances, according to the Petaluma firefighters.

“Had there been no CO detector in the lone upstairs unit of this complex there would have been several fatalities,” the news release said.

The fire department reminded residents that if their carbon monoxide alarm activates, they should immediately evacuate and call 911.

You can reach Staff Writer J.D. Morris at 707-521-5337 or jd.morris@pressdemocrat.com.