An elderly Park Hill woman, hospitalized Sunday morning after her aging furnace filled her home with carbon monoxide, has been sent home to recover, but experts say her brush with death should serve as a warning as winter approaches.
Denver Fire Department spokesman Lt. Phil Champagne said the woman’s furnace, which dates to the 1920s or ’30s, leaked noxious gas that, without the action of an attentive neighbor, would have killed her.
“People have gotten too lax,” he said. “Heating appliances need to be checked periodically. We prefer that they are checked annually, but the reality is people don’t do that.”
Champagne estimates that the Denver Fire Department makes an average of 2,000 runs each year investigating carbon-monoxide cases. Most turn out to be false alarms, but he said that shouldn’t obscure the fact that the odorless, colorless gas can be deadly.
The Colorado Department of Public Health reports that from 2005 to 2009, an average of 28 people were hospitalized each year from non-fire-related carbon-monoxide poisoning. More recent data have not been released.
Mike Taylor, service manger for Applewood Plumbing, Heating and Electric, said that a yearly inspection can nip problems in the bud.
“People know they have to change the oil in their cars. If they don’t do that and they ruin their engine, it’s probably not going to kill them,” he said. “But if they don’t regularly service their heating units, it could.”
Taylor said he encounters a variety of problems during inspections this time each year — everything from normal wear to vermin clogging the heating pipes. He said homeowners can change filters but shouldn’t attempt any other services, especially when natural gas is involved.
As an added fail-safe, Taylor said he installs carbon-monoxide detectors within 15 feet of each bedroom. This provision isn’t just a rule of thumb. It is a state law.
House Bill 1091, passed in 2009 and more commonly known as the Lofgren and Johnson Families Carbon Monoxide Safety Act, requires residential property owners to have working carbon-monoxide detectors in every home that is heated with fossil fuels, has a fuel-fired appliance, has a fireplace or has an attached garage.
The act was named for the four Lofgren family members who died of carbon-monoxide poisoning while vacationing in Aspen in November 2008, and for Lauren Johnson, a University of Denver graduate student who died in her off-campus apartment in January 2009.
Weston Gentry: 303-954-1054, wgentry@denverpost.com or
