Five people were poisoned by carbon monoxide at a Silverthorne condo complex just before dawn on Sunday, April 6.
Summit Fire and EMS reports several people were jarred awake by alarms.
“Some residents were actually trying to disable them, thinking they were false fire alarms,” Summit Fire’s Steve Lipsher tells Krystal 93 news director Phil Lindeman.
One resident was not convinced. Firefighters arrived and found near-fatal levels of gas seeping into condos.
“It’s important to remember this (gas) is odorless and colorless,” Lipsher says. “You can’t tell, and in this case it could have been lethal.”
The entire complex was evacuated. Three people were rushed by ambulance to the hospital for carbon-monoxide poisoning. Two others took themselves to the hospital with minor symptoms.
Lipsher says early investigation found a hybrid vehicle in the underground parking structure was to blame.
“It had been left in a powered mode,” Lipsher says. “It would stay on until the battery went to certain level, and then it would kick on combustion engine to recharge the battery. In doing so, every time it was building up and setting off these carbon monoxide alarms.”
The very next morning, April 7, at Arapahoe Basin, an astute kitchen employee heard an alarm while prepping for the day. This employee recognized the danger immediately, calmly switching on ventilation hoods and telling everyone to leave.
The culprit there was a malfunctioning kitchen appliance. Within seconds it was leeching deadly doses of carbon monoxide.
“We want people to take every alarm seriously,” Lipsher says. “Treat it as though it is telling you something. Those alarms don’t just give a false alarm. It is far better for us to get out there and check it, make sure everyone is OK, than assume it is nothing and ignore it.”
Carbon monoxide causes headache, dizziness and fatigue, and eventually death, by glomming on to red blood cells and suffocating the bloodstream.