Re: [gardeners] Fwd: Snow and Carbon Monoxide

Penny Nielsen (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 19 Jan 1999 09:49:27 -0400 

Tho we don't have an oil furnace, we did purchase on last year too after various scary reports on the news.  We got one cause of the wood stove.  Our plugs into the wall outlet too.  Good tip Linda.  You never know, it might save a life.



Penny Nielsen
Nielsenp@gov.ns.ca
Zone 5/6a

>>> Linda Baranowski-Smith <llbs@mail.glasscity.net> 01/16/99 01:05AM >>>
Received this today and thought all of us digging-out up north ought to be
aware.

Linda in snowy and icy NW Ohio near Toledo/Lake Erie, USDA Zone 5
llbs@mail.glasscity.net 


>Dear friends and relatives:
>
>Today has been quite a day!   This morning I was getting dressed, just putting
>on my shoes, when out of the blue, the carbon monoxide detector warning went
>off.   Reading of 128 at that point.    I called the non-emergency number of
>the fire department, stayed on the line until an attendant could get to me,
>and reported the incident.  They sent a fire truck out with 5 firemen, and
>with their detector, they noted steadily rising levels of carbon monoxide.
>Finally when it got to "7 bars", they said, we are shutting your furnace off,
>which they did.  The furnace repairmen were called, and they came.  To the
>best of their ability, they think the following scenario developed:   We have
>a new furnace (put in less than a year ago).  The newer furnaces are now being
>vented (not out the chimney over the roof), but out the side or back of the
>house near the foundation.   They think snow may have blocked the intake pipe
>or the exhaust pipe one.  So they cleared a patch around the vent to give it
>room to "breathe".    We have gone between 5 to 6 hours now without the carbon
>monoxide detector going off, so we are hoping that was all there was to it.
>But the concept is a scary thing, especially with all the deep snow all around
>the country this winter.    It is also a scary thing to think, "what if we
>hadn't owned a carbon monoxide detector!"       SOOO -  If any of you have a
>gas furnace and don't have a carbon monoxide detector - go out tonight and get
>one!!    Get the kind that plugs into the wall outlet, not battery operated.
>Our was a First Alert   ( I am not on a commission to them, however!).
>
>PLEASE!
>
>Deanna