Denver firefighters evacuated an apartment building primarily full of University of Denver graduate students Monday afternoon after finding “alarming” levels of carbon monoxide.
One student who was not identified was taken to a hospital after she was found unconscious on the top floor of the three-story, 42-unit Josephine Place building at 2035 Josephine St. just before 5 p.m., said Lt. Phil Champagne, a spokesman for the Fire Department.
Though the apartment is adjacent to the university, it is not a campus facility.
Investigators found the carbon monoxide had leaked from a flue from the boiler that had been repaired Monday after wind damage last week, Champagne said.
A graduate student had called for help and was groggy when she answered her door.
“Carbon monoxide is odorless and tasteless, but we deal with it enough to know what it is,” Champagne said.
The reading in her apartment was 300 parts per million; the level for a threat is 35 parts per million, he said.
The unconscious female student was in an adjacent apartment where the reading was 1,500 parts per million. A reading of 1,200 parts per million can be fatal, Champagne said.
