We could have died… But we didn’t so I’ll tell you all about it

A couple of Tuesdays ago, I was standing at my standing desk like I always do nowadays on a workweek day, when I heard a shrill intermittent beeping from somewhere in the house. It was like every 5 seconds, a beep, not a full-on fire alarm, so I figured it was a smoke detector needing a battery change.

I did not rush to figure this out. But it was annoying enough that eventually I went searching, and followed the noise down to the basement. It was a smoke detector, and as I got closer I realized it was beeping and talking. Within the interval between beeps, a Siri-type voice calmly stated:

“Beeep Carbon Monoxide Detected Beeep”

I stood there and listened to it a few times, at first to make sure that’s what it was actually saying, and then because I wasn’t sure what to do.

I knew that carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, sneaky, no-fair killer. I knew that if there was enough of it in the air I was breathing, it would asphyxiate me.

But what was going through my mind was:

Is this for real? What if this thing’s just acting up and needing a battery change? How do I know if this is the real deal?

I thought about it for a second. Quick science lesson here. When we breathe clean air, the oxygen we take in our lungs mixes with our bloodstream and gets picked up by our red blood cells. Oxygen binds to the iron in our blood cells, and those red blood cells travel around our body, delivering the oxygen to all of our organs. 

But carbon monoxide binds to the iron in our red blood cells even more tightly. It pushes oxygen out of the way and clamps onto those red blood cells, like a single-minded pit bull terrier on a beef bone. Over time, our organs get deprived of oxygen. If this goes on for long enough, all the red blood cells in our body get saturated with this useless molecule, and we suffocate from the inside.

Knowing all of this from medical school, I stood in the basement listening for awhile, to make sure I was hearing Fire Detector Siri correctly.

“Beeep Carbon Monoxide Detected Beeep”

Then common sense kicked in. I sprinted up the basement stairs, ran out to the backyard with the dog, and called 911. A very young-sounding operator got my name and address. Then:

“What’s your emergency?” she asked.

“Um, there’s a carbon monoxide detector in our basement announcing that we have carbon monoxide detected, and I wasn’t quite sure if it was a 911-worthy thing or not. I totally apologize if this wasn’t the right call to make…”

“Ma’am, this was the right call to make,” she responded. “Are you out of the house?”

She verified that no humans were in the house. I had a brief twinge of guilt that I left the cats behind– Sorry kitties, not going back in— but the police and fire department were there in under 2 minutes.

I went to meet them all and I kept apologizing to everyone because I still wasn’t convinced the alarm was legit.

The firefighters marched into the house holding a meter, as soon as they walked in one announced:

“Yup, registering, 35 parts per million.” 

The police officer stepped back and took off his hat. “That’s significant,” he said. “If you’re exposed to that level overnight, well, that can be real serious. That can kill a person.” 

Their detectors registered significant levels of carbon monoxide, 35-55 PPM throughout the whole house. For context: It’s supposed to be 0 PPM, and 50 PPM is where people start to have symptoms, and after a few hours’ exposure can become quite sick.

The Deputy Fire Chief and team worked to locate the source: Our older model natural gas boiler, which had only been on for 24 hours.

Here’s what was really scary: We have hardwired smoke and carbon monoxide detectors all over our house, and levels were above 50 PPM in several rooms, BUT ONLY ONE DETECTOR WAS ALARMING.

The Deputy Fire Chief checked, and every single one of our hardwired detectors was over 10 years old. This is very very bad.

Why? Carbon monoxide detectors work because they have a chemical reaction sensor inside, which deteriorates over time and becomes less sensitive to CO, which is why we’re supposed to replace them out every 5-7 years no matter what. 

The Deputy pointed out that if left undetected, the levels would have kept increasing, and likely would have reached lethal levels within 48 hours. We would have felt flu-like symptoms like fatigue, headache, and nausea which we might not have recognized as carbon monoxide poisoning, especially because we had all those detectors and would have expected them to alert in the presence of CO. 

This is apparently a totally classic scenario, BTW: The heat goes on, carbon monoxide leaks, and detectors are too old to function correctly so no one knows, so when they feel sick they go to bed, and die in their sleep. There were two deaths in NH that very week with this exact story. It even says:

“It has been determined that carbon monoxide alarms were located within the residence, but they were not functional.”

For us, we were lucky that the one in the basement was functional. The firefighters turned off the boiler and aired out the house with huge fans. We had no heat and no hot water for a week while we got everything checked out and fixed. Now we’re looking to replace the boiler or switch to heat pumps… 

Meantime people, go NOW and look at your CO detectors. If they’re over 5 years old or you can’t tell how old they are just go to the hardware store and get new ones, now. Learn from us!

Here’s what the CDC says on carbon monoxide poisoning