Carbon monoxide detector could have prevented deaths: officials

The Calgary fire department is recommending that people get carbon monoxide monitors for their homes, after an elderly couple died from breathing in lethal amounts of the gas.

Emergency crews were called to a northwest home Wednesday night and found the couple in their 70s in cardiac arrest. A firefighter noticed the couple's son "staggering" and displaying odd symptoms and ordered the house evacuated.

The son and eight emergency workers were taken to hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning but are all expected to recover. The couple died in hospital.

"We all felt very dizzy, very shaky, light-headed and very anxious," said paramedic Adam Loria.

"As soon as we hit the fresh air, I began feeling light headed and burning in my chest," recalled his colleague Breanne Haddon.

Investigators say the incident, caused by a car left running in the attached garage with the door closed, was accidental. They believe a carbon monoxide detector could have alerted people inside the house to the deadly buildup of gas.

"It apparently was this gentleman's practice to warm up his vehicle before he left," said Staff Sgt. Tammy Pozzobon. "There is some indication there may have been some battery issues with the vehicle. He might have been trying to charge the vehicle."

The emergency responders were not carrying gas detectors, which are not used on routine medical calls. The fire department said each truck is equipped with a monitor but to provide each member with one would be too costly.

Monitors range from $40 to $80

Carbon monoxide is the leading cause of accidental poisoning deaths in Canada. Since 2002, 35 people have died in Alberta from the poisonous gas, which has no smell or colour.

"We promote having a detector for sure," said fire department spokesman Jeff Budai. "Anything that's burning fuel, you want to make sure you maintain it."

Carbon monoxide detectors cost from $40 to $80, depending on how complex the device is, said Keith McDonald of AE Security.

"If you want them to have the readout on them so it tells you constantly what [the carbon monoxide level] is or if you just want a warning, there's various levels of them but they all do the job very well," he said.

The building code in the city of Calgary requires the door from an attached garage to the home to have a tight seal and an automatic closing device to prevent carbon monoxide from getting into the home, said David Price, manager of building regulations.