COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – City of Coldwater Fire Marshall Steve Trall says a carbon monoxide detector that was installed at a home in the 400 block of Grand Street last year by the fire department prevented a tragedy over the weekend.
The fire department was called by the CO alarm at about 10:45 a.m. Sunday morning to the residence that had three children and two adults living in it.
Trall says when firefighters entered the home, there were elevated levels of carbon monoxide with even higher levels in the basement.
They found the furnace exhausting about 500ppm in the basement. That high of a level of carbon monoxide is enough to become life threatening in about three hours.
The furnace was turned off and the home was ventilated. A gas company representative told the homeowner to contact his HVAC contractor who later found a cracked heat exchanger.
The CO alarm was one of the smoke and CO alarms that were received by the Coldwater Fire Departments as part of the Michigan S.A.F.E. (Smoke Alarms for Everyone) program. Coldwater firefighters installed 96 smoke alarms and 32 CO alarms in their response area during 2019.
