VeggieBoards › Forums › General Discussion Forums › Off Topic Forum › My Carbon Monoxide Alarm went off! :o
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

My Carbon Monoxide Alarm went off! :o

post #1 of 23
2/20/05 at 4:55pm
Thread Starter 
About an hour ago, my First Alert carbon monoxide alarm went off, for no apparent reason.

I had the oven going, so I turned it off, and took the detector down and pressed the silence button, (it was beeping four times with the red light flashing), then I moved it to the window ledge outside the window. Two minutes later it started beeping again, so...I called 311 (city service hotline number) and they immediately connected me to the fire department, about three minutes later I hear sirens from a fire truck at my building, and then there are 6 firefighters with gear in my studio apartment!!!

Well...they DID get a reading for Carbon Monoxide..when they first arrived it was fluctuating then it went to zero before they left. They said not to use the stove until it can be checked.

Five minutes later the police department rang my bell.....miscommunication on someone's part....

Now I'm trying to regain focus on my studies again...but its hard to concentrate when half of NYC's civil servants have paraded through here moments ago...I'm looking around at what a miss my room is, too....

OH WELL nothing can be done about it now I suppose why fret about what I cant change.

Anyway, better to be safe than sorry, Id rather be alive than to have forgone the call because my room was a mess for company to see!!!
Reply
Reply

Featured Stories on VeggieBoards

The Vegan Athlete: Maximize Health & Fitness + Maintain a Compassionate Lifestyle
Best Vegan Pepperoni Pizza
VeggieBoards is the ultimate resource for all vegetarians
post #2 of 23
2/20/05 at 6:59pm
Our carbon monoxide detector went off at work once. I just called the fire department's phone number, not 911, and I was really shocked by the response too!! I guess it can be a really serious situation...
http://megatarian.blogspot.com
Reply
http://megatarian.blogspot.com
Reply
post #3 of 23
2/20/05 at 7:24pm
I used to keep one in the car that had a leak in the exhaust system. It actually didn't go off unless it reached 100ppm. Which is kinda high. At even 30 PPM I would roll down the windows because at even that low level I would eventually become sleepy and ill. Does your detector tell you what level it goes off at? Did you feel tired or woozy? I may just be very sensitive to it.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 23
2/20/05 at 8:08pm
Did they suggest shutting the gas off to the stove?
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 23
2/20/05 at 11:29pm
Eek! I wouldn't feel safe sleeping in your apartment.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 23
2/20/05 at 11:57pm
My parents house when I was young had no CO detector. Our stove (it was NH, they have wood/coal burning stoves for coal) didn't pull right, and the CO level in our house got dangerously high. One of my parents woke up with a splitting headache, and it turned out we were all being poisoned and were quite sick. We all had to stay in the hospital for a bit. My mother was pregnant with my sister at the time. My sister was born with a cataract on one eye that the doctors believe was due to the CO poisoning. So, yes, CO poisoning can be a really big thing.



My appartment's CO detector has gone off twice in the last week. It's odd, because it hasn't gone off at all before this in the six months we've been here. We opened the window and turned on an air purifier and it got better. I'm also concerned, though. I think I'm going to have my stove checked up.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 23
2/21/05 at 12:37am
that happened at my grandma's house once... detector went off... it was the furnace in the basement... they shut it off, put a "illegal to turn on..." tag, with a notification number of a city/state certified inspection once it was fixed and everything



a few months later, they started charging $80 a call if you had to use them for a CO2 thing! (oops... CO that is... I think... late... can't think)
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 23
2/21/05 at 1:08am
I've never heard of a carbon monoxide detector???



Maybe in Aus we don't tend to have them, or maybe I never noticed? Wierd.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 23
2/21/05 at 1:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Descentia View Post

I've never heard of a carbon monoxide detector???



Maybe in Aus we don't tend to have them, or maybe I never noticed? Wierd.



Lol yeah I was thinking "Wtffff is that" And at least Im not the only one..



Reply
Reply
post #10 of 23
2/21/05 at 1:42am
Same here, Descentia. I was wondering if it's a fancy name for a smoke detector.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 23
2/21/05 at 1:45am
Come on USA'ers. Tell the ignorant folk what the heck you need Carbon Monoxide detectors for???
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 23
2/21/05 at 2:01am
They're all in bed. We'll have to wait for their tranzlation.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 23
2/21/05 at 2:10am
They're a gas that's produced from many things... the common being a muffler of a car... but also gas furnaces, water heaters, stoves.... and possibly other things
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 23
2/21/05 at 2:15am
I'm not *that* ignorant!!! I know what carbon monoxide is.



Just never heard of a 'detector' that you would buy and keep in your house or car. We have smoke detectors here - but never heard of a carbon monoxide detector. Do most households have them?
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 23
2/21/05 at 2:19am
depends.... anymore it's recommended that you do have one (apparently, it kills a lot of people *shrug*)



oh, but just thought I'd clarify what it was, in case someone wondered why a house needed one
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 23
2/21/05 at 2:29am
Thanks.



These little cultural differences that suddenly pop up remind me I am actually chatting with people on the other side of the world.
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 23
2/21/05 at 3:18am
In my grandmothers 'holiday-house'(no idea if that is really a word...) they heating wouldn't go on, because it detected a leak of CO, wich automaticly turned the heater of...

Wich is good, except that it did get very cold....



Anyway, here in the Netherlands it isn't standard to have those detectors in your house, I think because most houses (+heating and such)are safe enough. The only times I hear from CO poisoning, it was in trailers or other ''holiday-house' (there it is again...) , not in real houses...
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 23
2/21/05 at 6:01am
A lot of people have them here. Gas items like water heaters and furnaces can cause problems and since it is pretty much totally avoidable a lot of people choose to have them.



A friend of mine came a little too close to dying from co2 poisoning. She and her kids had been getting headaches and not feeling well. One day she took them to school and noticed that they all felt better out of the house but it didn't quite register. Even when she left though, she still had a bad headache. She went back home and by noon was in bed and so sleepy she could not motivate herself to get up and eat lunch. She got a phone call from a friend who is a air conditioning installer and he commented on her sounding like she needed help (he thought she was drink at first-slurred speech, slow response, not makins sense) and it did register in his head that she might have carbon monoxide build-up in her house. He rushed to her house and took her to the doctor and aired the house out and found the problem with the heater.



It was her almost-ex husband's rental house and not well taken care of at all. I am not too surprised.
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 23
2/21/05 at 9:53am
Thread Starter 
This past fall they made it a law in NYC that alll landlords must install carbon monoxide detectors in every apartment, same as smoke detectors.

I was annoyed that I had to pay the $25 for the installation but now I am glad I have the thing....nothing scarier than odorless toxins in the air!
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 23
2/21/05 at 10:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JLRodgers View Post

depends.... anymore it's recommended that you do have one (apparently, it kills a lot of people *shrug*)

Yes, it does kill a lot of people. My old 8th grade teacher is now paralyzed because of a carbon monoxide leak. Her husband and mother are dead, and I dont know about her daughters. Very scary.
Reply
Reply
post #21 of 23
2/21/05 at 10:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Morticia View Post

... My mother was pregnant with my sister at the time. My sister was born with a cataract on one eye that the doctors believe was due to the CO poisoning. So, yes, CO poisoning can be a really big thing.



My appartment's CO detector has gone off twice in the last week. It's odd, because it hasn't gone off at all before this in the six months we've been here. We opened the window and turned on an air purifier and it got better. I'm also concerned, though. I think I'm going to have my stove checked up.

Did your sis get better? Isn't that life-threatening, detectors not working? How come everyone's taking it so lightly, but sue coffee outlets when they get hot cofeee on their sagging wrinkly thighs?
Reply
Reply
post #22 of 23
2/21/05 at 11:51am
I think I'm off to ACE to get one. You guys are scaring me and my house is full of ovens and gas heaters and such (although also full of drafty windows, which should help). I'm sure these things will make their way down under in due time as well. I think my sister in NZ has one as she burns wood for heat.
Reply
Reply
post #23 of 23
2/21/05 at 12:04pm
Oh... but if you happen to start a car outside, and the alarm goes off.... it might just be the car that caused it to go off



That's happened before for my family. A car outside (or in a garage) will set it off.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Off Topic Forum

Featured Stories on VeggieBoards

The Vegan Athlete: Maximize Health & Fitness + Maintain a Compassionate Lifestyle
Best Vegan Pepperoni Pizza
VeggieBoards is the ultimate resource for all vegetarians
VeggieBoards › Forums › General Discussion Forums › Off Topic Forum › My Carbon Monoxide Alarm went off! :o