Quebec family overcome by carbon monoxide

A Quebec City family managed to summon emergency help Friday morning before being overwhelmed by carbon-monoxide poisoning.

The victims were overcome by fumes after someone left a car running in a garage adjacent to the home in the citys Charlesbourg district, officials said.

Ambulance techniciansarrived around 7 a.m. Inside, they founda couplein their 50s, their two young children and one of the childrens friends. All were losing consciousness, officials said.

"The children were really in a bad state it would have been a question of minutes and we could have lost them," said Quebec City Fire Department chief of operations Claude Bilodeau.

The five were taken to Enfant-Jsus Hospital, where they were being treated in a hyperbaric chamber and are considered out of danger.

The level of carbon monoxide in the home was measured at 600 particles per million, far above the acceptable level of 11 particles per million, officials said.

The incident serves as a reminder of the importance of carbon-monoxide detectors for people with garages adjacent to their homes, Bilodeau said.

Friends and neighbours of the family remain shaken by the situation.

"The car will never go back in that garage, I can assure you of that," an unidentified member of the couples extended family told Radio-Canada.

On Dec. 31, three members of a Gatineau, Que., family werefound dead from carbon-monoxide poisoning.